# Do you "age" pheasant meat?



## mjbarney12 (Feb 13, 2011)

I read some posts a couple of months ago about aging large game and it seemed like there were some posts on aging ANY wild meat and that doing so really helps with the wild taste. Is this true for pheasant? If so, how long and under what conditions are best for aging? Any other tips to help with the "gamey" taste?

Thanks


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

No. Don't age it. You don't age birds. If you aren't going to eat it right away, then skin the bird, clean it very well, and, zip lock it up and freeze it. Be sure to keep a leg attached if you are transporting it or giving it away. But don't age pheasant.

As far as prepping it - My favorite ways to cook pheasant are:
1 - stuff the little sucker with stove top stuffing, wrap 3-4 strips of bacon around it, secure with tooth picks, then wrap in foil and bake it at about 300 for about 20 minutes. Or put 3-4 of them in a dutch for about a half an hour. 

2- piece it out, dredge egg/milk mixture, roll in a cup of flour with a ranch dressing seasoning packet dumped in, and then fry it like you would chicken - 350 degrees, 3-4 minutes, turn, then another 3-4 minutes. Serve up like you would fried chicken.

3 - Fry it up like in #2 above. Then take pieces and put in a sauce made up of 1 cube of butter, melted, and mixed with a cup of Franks Red Hot Sauce. Let the cooked pieces of fried pheasant simmer in the red hot sauce for about 2- minutes, turning one, and then serve like you would buffalo wings - with ranch or blue cheese dressing, and a side of celery. And I like that on top of a bed of steamed rice. Dang good stuff.


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## Chaser (Sep 28, 2007)

I have heard of people that will hang a pheasant by its head in a cool place where it can't freeze but won't spoil, then when the weight of the body stretches the neck to the point where the head is separated, they clean them and eat them. Don't know of I would recommend it, but it is a method of aging.


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## caddis8 (Sep 10, 2007)

GF- It's going to be a really good year this year. Really good.


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## caddis8 (Sep 10, 2007)

GF- It's going to be a really good year this year. Really good.


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## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

mjbarney12 said:


> I read some posts a couple of months ago about aging large game and it seemed like there were some posts on aging ANY wild meat and that doing so really helps with the wild taste. Is this true for pheasant? If so, how long and under what conditions are best for aging? Any other tips to help with the "gamey" taste?
> 
> Thanks


First, Pheasants dont taste gamey, at least not to me... And yes, you can age Pheasants. You can age any game bird, guts in, and it will be fine. You see, the difference between game birds and game animals is how they expel gas. If you don't gut an animal the gases dont escape and the animal bloats there by spoiling the meat. Birds on the other hand expel all their harmful meat spoiling gases out the vent. That's why you never see a "bloated" bird. Armed with this knowledge one can age meat in the appropriate way. With game animals and beef you hang the meat in a meat locker for several days and the microbial activity in the meat breaks it down and makes it more tender. The longer you age it the more tender it gets. It also loses weight and gets dryer as well. That's why the most tender cuts of meat are so expensive. Usually with deer and elk I'll let them hang at 35 degrees for about 10-15 days. Less time with deer as they are smaller and will dry out quicker. With game birds I simply hang them up my their necks or feet and let them "air out" for about a week. Yes, guts and all. They will be fine as long as you keep the temp below 40 degrees. Aging Pheasant and other game birds including but not limited to ducks, chukar, turkeys and the likes will greatly enhance their flavor and make them much more tender to eat. I've eaten thousands of birds prepared this way and I'm not dead... They have been doing it in Europe for hundreds of years. Us dummies in the states are just now catching on. If you want to eat a piece of boot leather, cut the meat off a freshly killed bird, throw it on the grill that night and cook the hell out of it. If you want good tasting meat that is tender and moist, age it first and then cook it till its firm and get it off the heat.


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## ted (Oct 22, 2011)

Thought I'd pile on and add one more vote to the "yes" pile. I always age the birds I shoot (grouse, pheasant, chukar, whatever) in my garage, which is mostly underground and somewhere between 40 and 50 degrees. Don't know if you've heard of Hank Shaw before (or whether you read his article on aging birds), but he's got plenty to say about this. Find the article here:

http://honest-food.net/2008/11/27/on-hanging-pheasants/


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

I'll usually age mine from the time that I shoot them until I eat them either that night or the next. The longest one has made it was some grouse a few years ago during the deer hunt but they still didn't make it that long.


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## bowgy (Oct 10, 2007)

This reminds me of the movie Shogun where the englishman hangs his pheasants to age and they start to stink and so his servant disposes of them and the englishman gets mad and the servant comits hari-kari. :shock:


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## Pumpgunner (Jan 12, 2010)

I don't usually age pheasant, grouse or chukar as they are great right off the bat but you won't believe what 10 days or so of aging will do for ducks. I've tricked people into thinking they were eating roast beef with aged duck.


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