# Lonsome dove



## willfish4food (Jul 14, 2009)

Went out last weekend for the N. Alabama dove opener. It was my first time dove hunting, and I only got one. Since I didn't have a bag of birds to clean, I decided to pluck the whole thing.

















Rubbed it down with olive oil; added some thyme, salt, and pepper; and put it in the dutch oven with some biscuits.










It was good; the wings were tough to eat but the legs were better than expected. If I do it again, I think I'll cook the bird(s) first till the skin crisps and then do the biscuits after. Or do the birds on the grill. Although, by cooking them together, the biscuit the bird was sitting on soaked up a bunch of the drippings and was DELICIOUS!


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## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

looks delicious!!


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Perfect!

.


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

I am looking at the first picture of the plucked dove and the last picture after he was cooked and man that looks like some extremely serious shrinkage there


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## willfish4food (Jul 14, 2009)

LostLouisianian said:


> I am looking at the first picture of the plucked dove and the last picture after he was cooked and man that looks like some extremely serious shrinkage there


Haha! The top picture the bird is in a bowl and the bottom on a plate. The bowl is considerably smaller than the plate.


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

willfish4food said:


> Haha! The top picture the bird is in a bowl and the bottom on a plate. The bowl is considerably smaller than the plate.


I bet that biscuit he was perched on while cooking was way yummy


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## willfish4food (Jul 14, 2009)

LostLouisianian said:


> I bet that biscuit he was perched on while cooking was way yummy


Yup. Best biscuit of the bunch; and that's saying something! I told my wife biscuits in the dutch oven are way better than from a pan in the regular oven. She looked at me like I was crazy then she ate one and agreed. I've only done them in the DO a couple of times, but I think it's the bacon grease I put in the bottom of the oven before laying the biscuits down.

If I get more birds this season, I think I'll put one on top of each biscuit.


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

willfish4food said:


> Yup. Best biscuit of the bunch; and that's saying something! I told my wife biscuits in the dutch oven are way better than from a pan in the regular oven. She looked at me like I was crazy then she ate one and agreed. I've only done them in the DO a couple of times, but I think it's the bacon grease I put in the bottom of the oven before laying the biscuits down.
> 
> If I get more birds this season, I think I'll put one on top of each biscuit.


Whats your recipe for them and cooking time etc...I have 4 dutch ovens screaming at me "use me, use me".


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## willfish4food (Jul 14, 2009)

2 cups flour 
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder 
8 tablespoons butter
1/2 to 3/4 cups milk (depends on how you like your dough and flour compactness)

this makes 7 biscuits when I use these proportions. 

I imagine you know how to make biscuits, but for those who don't:

Mix dry ingredients, and then cut butter in till it "looks like cornmeal". I leave a few bigger chunks of butter (large pea sized). Form a well in middle, and pour in 1/2 cup of milk. using a fork, work dry mix into milk gently. If more milk is needed, add gradually by sprinkling over top evenly (this last batch took just shy of the 3/4 cups. It depends on how compact your flour is when measured). When dough just starts coming together (there will be a little of the dry ingredients that haven't mixed in), turn out onto floured surface and press flat. "Letter fold" (fold in thirds) and press flat again. Repeat this process just until biscuit dough is formed then letter fold one more time, wrap in plastic, and put in fridge to firm up and rest for at least 20 minutes. 

Remove from fridge and, on a floured surface, press out in rectangle till about a half inch thick. Mine usually comes out to about 4-5 inches by 8-9 inches. Cut as many biscuits as you can from this rectangle (Biscuit cutters are nice but I use a washed Campbell's soup can with holes punched in the bottom to let the air out). Then push dough scraps together, fold once or twice, and cut next batch. Smash the remaining scraps together and form into biscuit shape. The first cut will have the most flaky texture the next not bad and the last might be a bit "chewy". Depends on how much you work your dough.

I put nine coals around the bottom perimeter of my 10 inch oven (3 between each leg) and one under the center. For my 14 inch oven I put 5 between each leg and three under the center. Then I put as many coals as I can possibly fit on the top. This last time I started too many coals, so after the biscuits were in, I just dumped the remainder on top of the oven so they were mounded on top. 

Bacon grease isn't needed because there's so much butter in the biscuits, but I use it anyway. I cook them for about 12 minutes.


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