Taking the best meat from a pheasant - the quick no-pluck, no-smell method

Required:

• One pheasant
• Very sharp knife

 

Doing this on newspaper is a great idea because when you've finished you can simply wrap up the remains and pop it in the wheelie bin.

 

part the feathers at the breast bone and expose the skin as best you can. Gently cut the skin for an inch or two down the breast bone. Pull it apart with your fingers, tearing it all the way down and away from the meat.

 

slide your knife down one side of the breast bone. Cut the meat from the bone using the breast bone and wishbone as a guide. There is a very thin membrane separating you from the body cavity (you can see it in the picture below), and if you are very careful not to pierce this, there will be no smell at all. If you do break through into the body cavity it will make your kitchen smell a bit unpleasant for a while. Do this both sides to get the breast fillets off.

Now the legs. I think this is the tastiest meat. pull the skin away, just like taking off its PJ bottoms. Gently cut the meat away from the body and break the joint where the leg joins the body. Also break the knee joint to get the foot off (or is it the ankle? You know what I mean). There are some seriously hard tendons there that will need cutting.

That's it. It is possible to delve into the bird to get out the heart, kidneys and liver, but for today we'll just wrap up the remains and cook the meat.

Wrap the breast fillets in bacon and grill everything for a couple of minutes to seal it.

Put the meat in a casserole dish, pour on white wine and sprinkle with rosemary. Cover and cook in the oven.

When the meat is tender, pour off the juice, reduce / add some cornflour to thicken. Pour back over the meat and serve with roasties and lots of veg. That's just the way the bird would have wanted it. [edit - I can't believe I couldn't manage to pick matching plates after all that effort.]