Plucking and Preparing Birds

The plucking, drawing, and dressing of game birds in preparation for cooking them is one of the less romantic chores connected with hunting.

Some hunters shy away from the task, in the hope of giving the birds away, or persuading someone else, likely the lady of the house, to take care of it. Others make a full production out of it, winding up with feathers, fuss, and fowl strung all over the house.

Actually, dressing out upland birds or waterfowl can be a short, neat job; and having sweet-tasting birds is comparable to making good meat out of a big-game animals—simply accord the game the same care that one would give to domestic meat.

Many hunters, aware of this, field-dress their birds immediately after killing them. Before doing this, however, one precaution should be ob­served. Some states require that evidence of sex in an upland bird be maintained until it is checked out by an official or through a field checking-station. This regulation is made largely for the species of pheasants to prevent the killing of hens.

To comply with the ruling, it is necessary to leave the feathers on the bird during transit. If the hunter elects to skin his birds later, rather than pluck them, yet still wishes to draw the birds immediately after shooting them, then they are simply drawn in the field, but dressing is finished at home.

Another precaution is in order. Occasionally, the lucky hunter will bag an unusual specimen—an extraordinarily large bird, one of exceptional coloration, or even an albino or a melanistic mutation. Such birds are real prizes and the hunter may wish to have the bird mounted.

PREPARING BIRDS FOR TAXIDERMY

The field preparation necessary to the later work of the taxidermist is quite simple, and allows the hunter to eat his cake and have it, too.

For hunts of one day's duration, and where the bird may be taken to the taxidermist that evening, all that is necessary is to draw the bird. This is not accomplished by cutting a hole or making a cross-slit at the rear of the abdominal wall as in field-dressing; but by making a longitudinal in­cision from the anal vent along the belly line at the sternum. The insides are carefully removed through this single incision. Later, when this is sewn by the taxidermist and the feathers smoothed back into place, no seam is visible.

When a prized bird cannot be taken to the shop for several days, it must be skinned out. To skin a bird for taxidermy, two skin incisions are made. One is from the anal vent to the forward end of the breast bone, along the center line of the belly.

Through this one incision all necessary body-skinning is done. The tail is cut off at its "narrows," leaving all feathers intact in the small diamond-shaped piece of gristle. The body is carefully skinned all around and brought out through this one incision. Legs are severed at the upper end of the drum sticks. Wings are cut off where they join the body. The back section is skinned out by working upward from each side, through the abdominal incision.

The second incision is made at the base of the skull—a longitudinal cut in the skin over the back of the skull and neck, about 2 inches long for birds the size of ducks and pheasants. Through this second incision, the neck is cut at the junction with the medulla, and the brains scratched away with a knife point.

The body may now be removed from the whole skin. All flesh is next pared off the leg bones down to their final junction with the skin; and the meat is removed off the wings down to the second joint. The leg and wing bones are left integral with the skin, and are later reinforced with heavy wire to shape up the final bird. The incision at the back of the skull is, like the belly incision, sewed up later and will not show.

With the skin, head, wings, and legs all left in one piece, and all meat pared away, salt is copiously rubbed over all the inside of the skin. Particular attention is given to all folds, pockets, and junctions of skin bones. Feathers are stroked down into normal position, and the skin is then placed in a cooler, if possible, or other cool place, awaiting transit. Prepared this way, a bird skin will last for several days until it can be shipped or taken to a taxidermist. The body of the bird may be dressed and eaten, if desired.

PREPARING BIRDS FOR COOKING

When birds are to be prepared for the table, without regard for plumage, first decide whether the game is to be skinned or plucked.

Among hunters there are many who consider it a sacrilege to skin any game bird. They religiously pluck the feathers off both upland bi-ds and waterfowl, then cook them with the skin intact. The fat covering most game birds, especially waterfowl, does add to the final flavor and succulence of the cooked fowl.

Another group of hunters, possibly the lazier ones, will pluck their waterfowl, but simply skin out their upland birds, removing all feathers and hide in one simple operation. Thin-skinned upland birds, such as pheasants, sage grouse, and forest grouse, are the ones most often skinned rather than plucked.

Regardless of the hunter's preference, the procedure for both upland birds and waterfowl is similar.

First, any bird should be cleaned as soon as possible after killing—at least the same evening. Birds dress easier if they are still a bit warm. Im­mediately after death, and especially in warmer weather, the gases begin forming in the abdominal cavity. These, with the intestinal fluids released by shot-puncturing, will tend to taint the flesh if not removed. The action is greatly hastened by any moving of the bird after it is dead. Incidentally, with sage grouse, this intestinal fluid smells and will give the bird a strong flavor if left inside for any appreciable time. Most hunters after this species will disembowel the bird immediately after it is killed.

Before starting to dress a bird at home, a large newspaper should be spread over the work surface. This will catch all feathers, blood, viscera, etc., and may be rolled up around such materials afterward and disposed of by burning. Another handy item is a large paper bag, such as groceries are sold in. This bag is rolled half way down from the top, creating a stiff, open-mouthed container for feathers.

PLUCKING

If the bird is to be plucked, not skinned, the first step is to pull out the breast feathers. This is accomplished by taking "pinches" of feathers out, using the thumb and first two fingers. The feathers are pulled with the grain of the position in which they lie, not against it—except for tough birds. Otherwise, the skin may tear. The pinches of feathers are put into the open sack and usually saved. Nothing, incidentally, makes a better pillow for the sleeping bag than the breast feathers of several ducks or a noble old gander or two. Even the breast feathers of grouse and pheasants, mixed with duck feathers and down, make a good pillow filler. And the breast down off waterfowl is, of course, best of all.

SCALDING

With the breast feathers and other handiest feathers removed, it ex­pedites the plucking chore to scald the bird. Scalding makes the feathers come out easier and dampens them, preventing their scattering all over the kitchen. Any feathers meant for saving should not be scalded.

The easiest way to scald a fowl is to dunk it into a bucket of scalding water; or place it into the bucket and pour the scalding water over it. The right temperature for average birds is 145 degrees Fahrenheit, and the average time is 20 seconds. Household detergent added to the water will aid the scalding water to penetrate the feathers on waterfowl, which are oily. Birds should not be over-scalded, as the skin will break.

With the fowl scalded, the remaining feathers are plucked off until the carcass is free of all feathers and down.

Most birds, even after feathers and down are removed, will still have a remaining fuzz of thin hair sticking out from the flesh. The fuzz is easily removed by the same method women once used to singe the short pin feathers from a domestic chicken. They would roll up a newspaper and twist it into a stick about 16 inches long by an inch or so in diameter. This newspaper torch was lighted with a match, over the kitchen stove (to catch the ashes). While holding the bird aloft by the feet, they would pass the flame closely under it, but not long enough to burn the skin. This singed the hen clean of all pin feathers, and will work as well on game birds.

Back in the days when waterfowl were plentiful, many hunters speeded up the de-feathering process by using paraffin wax. The whole bird was dipped into melted paraffin and allowed to cool. The wax-plus-feathers was then peeled off, much as you would peel an orange. The wax was saved, melted again, skimmed of feathers, kept in a galvanized bucket, aid used over and over again.

DRAWING

With the bird de-feathered, it is then drawn. This is done by making an incision in the skin all around the anal vent, including enough of the rear abdominal wall to make an opening large enough to reach into. Through this, the inner organs are pulled out to the rear.

At the rear of the bird's abdominal wall will be found a pair of riblike small bones—the equivalent of the pelvic bones in man. It helps in the cleaning process to cut these bones off on each side and close to the back, when making the rear-end incision, and allowing them to come away with the belly flesh. These two matching bones will be found around the intes­tines, in the belly flesh, and supporting the intestines like two curving ribs; and their removal makes an adequate opening.

With the bird dressed, and such portions as the liver and hear- saved, the viscera is rolled up in the newspaper, and the carcass washed clean of all blood in cold water. The bird is then ready for a final cooling out. The head, and feet up to the drum-stick joint, are, of course, whacked off before the fowl is cooked.

This is the procedure most often used in preparing ducks, geese, and other waterfowl, for cooking. The fat and skin covering waterfowl not only are a vital part of the overall flavor, but add greatly in basting the bird as it cooks.

Upland birds may be cared for in the same way, but a great many of them aren't. Numerous hunters prefer to remove the viscera from the bird shortly after killing it, while in the hunting field, and finish at home; or they choose to wait and do both chores that evening at home.
When plumage isn't wanted, it is a simple job to draw a game bird afield. Beginning at the back, the tail is cut off at its "narrows" with a sharp pocket knife. As this cut goes downward, it is continued all the way around the anal vent on either side; and on each side the small riblike bone is severed close up against the back. The incision is extended forward, including most of the belly flesh in this cut-away portion, until both sides of the incision meet at the point of the rib cage. Care is used, in all cases, to make sure no intestines are cut.

With the cut completed, all the insides may be pulled out in a single stroke, simply by reaching forward and stripping them out with the fingers.

Many hunters have even simplified that. With the incision completed, they grasp the pair of wings folded across the bird's back; then with a mighty swing, quite like cracking a bull-whip at arm's length, they whip out the entire mass of innards in one stroke. This may be done afield, but is not recommended in the kitchen.

In either instance, the inside of the body cavity is then wiped free of all blood, juices from punctured intestines, and other moisture, with a handful of the bird's dry feathers.

SKINNING

When both the skinning and the drawing are done at home, the bird first is skinned completely, then drawn. With the point of a sharp knife, the skin is first cut longitudinally along a leg. With the fingers, the skin is then literally pulled off, up towards the body of the fowl, and on over the entire carcass. The skin on most upland birds, unless they are tough old fowls, will pull off in fairly large hunks of skin-and-feathers combined. Such areas as the drum-stick ends have to be girdled with the knife; and at such points as the wings the stripping motion of the fingers has to be helped by some bits of skin cutting.

The skin on waterfowl, if they are skinned instead of plucked, has to be cut away with a knife. Skinning is easy with upland birds, somewhat difficult with waterfowl, but with either, a little patience and a sharp knife are all that are necessary.

With the bird skinned, it is then drawn as with plucked birds, washed free of all blood and feathers in cold water, and cooled for cooking.

PALATABILITY

The palatability of game birds is dependent upon many factors. What the bird eats, for one thing, will determine its general flavor. As examples, mallards which have fed for some time before harvest in grain fields will be far better eating than if the same birds had lived in a muddy swamp. Sage grouse which have fed predominantly on sagebrush will be stronger in flavor than birds which hatch out and grow up near alfalfa field*.

Toughness, too, has a bearing on edibility; and in at least a few instances the hunter can regulate this factor to some extent. For example, the oldest birds, other factors being equal, will be toughest to eat. Under today's hunt­ing competition, the hunter often has to be content with what slots he can get at any individual birds. On good days when he may choose a bit, he can to some extent pick his birds for the skillet. Here are some tips worth remembering:

With wild geese, the oldest, most wary gander will lead the V of birds through the sky. Often in a skillet such a bird will be comparable to nibbling on a gum boot. If the hunter shoots one of the birds near the tail end of the V, or last one in a flock, it will be a young and tender bird.

The age of sage grouse may be estimated in a general way by size and breast coloration. If the bird gets heavily up off the ground, has nearly a pure black breast, and lumbers off looking like a small turkey, it will be an old cock. A younger bird will appear to be much smaller and more uniformly speckled (dark and light) all over.

Pheasants may be differentiated by the length of tail feathers. In most areas, only cocks are legally hunted. If a male pheasant explodes and cackles away and his tail feathers stream out behind to approximately 2 feet, and his overall coloration is brilliant in hue, he is apt to be an old bird. Oppositely, cock birds with short tail feathers, and a hue that, while multi-colored, is nevertheless dusky in appearance, are the younger birds. They will be far better eating.

COOKING

The best way to learn how to cook game birds is by using a good cook book containing proven recipes, or by consulting the outdoor journals, which repeatedly publish fine recipes for cooking both upland birds and waterfowl.

Here, utilizing basic, proven recipes, are three additional touches which will lift the finished product out of the ordinary:

Sage grouse are best fried, or sautéed in butter. The evening before cook­ing this species, place a half onion in the body cavity and hang the cleaned and washed bird in the open air overnight. The onion must be cut to expose a moist, absorbent surface. This takes up the strong, sagey taste of the bird, and is later discarded. It also leaves a mild onion flavor to the meat which is most appropriate and delectable. Forest grouse are often killed in a big-game hunting camp for pot-meat. A fine way to prepare such birds is to clean and cool them, then split each bird's breast bone with a clean ax until the bird may be laid out flat, using the back as a hinge. Next, heat a Dutch oven until ¼ pound of butter will "sing" as it runs over the hot bottom. Place the flattened bird in, searing it until it turns golden brown, then turn it and sear the opposite side to the same extent. Lastly, place the cover on the oven and slow-cook until the entire bird is sautéed to a golden yellow. One bird per hunter is the correct serving.

A final recipe, meant to change wild ducks into something special, was given me by my friend Joe Foss. Only the breasts of the birds are used, with the bird uncoupled at the small of the back, and the legs and backs used in some other fashion.

Each breast is rubbed with a mixture of salt and pepper, placed in a roaster containing sufficient water to begin the cooking, as with any normal roasting, and placed in a hot oven. The secret is to baste the bird re­peatedly as it cooks with chokecherry jelly. The jelly is placed, at the beginning, on each upturned breast and during the cooking will turn thin and mix with the natural fat and juices of the bird, as well as the water. Each bird is basted sufficiently so that it never becomes dry and is cooked until medium well-done.

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