Advice on smoking a pheasant

[Kidd]

Looking for some advice on smoking a pheasant. I’ve smoked turkey, ducks, chicken and geese but never a pheasant. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

[Mike89]

Kidd, i have done many pheasants and the thing I think is the best for doing them is make a good brine up and soak the birds over night at least. You should rinse them off when you pull them from the brine too. The little rascals can be fun but also orery too! But the taste is great. I usually use a brown sugar cure when I do mine. Good luck, Mike89.

[The Grebe]

Kidd...Here is my advice on smoking a Pheasant.....You have smoked all the other things, so I don't suppose I have to tell you the basics?

Make sure you get all the feathers off the Pheasant, when heat is applied to feathers, they smell bad and taste worse!

Pat the Pheasant dry, set your oven on it's lowest setting, like you were going to make jerky, put the pheasant on a cookie sheet and put it in the oven, leaving the door ajar, you just want to get the pheasant somewhat dry before you smoke it. This can take 4 or 5 days.

Once the Pheasant is dry enough to be smoked, put the bird in a brown grocery bag and pound and roll and beat the beejeebers out of it with a rolling pin, bones and all, pulverize the bird as best you can.

When this process is complete, using Elmers glue and staples, get yourself about 25 or 30 packs of Zig-Zag papers and fashion one big sheet about 3 feet by 3 feet.

If you are on a budget and can't afford commercial paper, you can use Christmas wrap, or newspaper. The Christmas wrap is much more festive and the dyes and coloring don't affect the taste much, nor does the ink in the newspaper.

Lay the 3x3 paper on the floor and evenly distribute the pulverized Pheasant and roll it up in the paper.

Some people substitute the paper with saved, cardboard tubes, from the toilet paper, much easier to join together and they hold the burn longer. Most folks go with the paper when smoking Pheasants.

Twist both ends real good like on a sausage, so none of the Pheasant can get out...if you done it right, it should weigh about 2 pounds.

Now you get 2 "Y" shaped branches about 4 feet long and jam them into the ground about a foot apart...lay the rolled up Pheasant carefully into the Y shaped holders.

Get a little chair, your BBQ igniter, your Benz-O-Matic and settle in on whichever end of the Pheasant roll you are comfortable with. With the igniter, light the Benz-O-Matic and with the Benz-O-Matic, torch the end of the Pheasant rool and puff to beat hell on the other end!

"Voila" smoked Pheasant! Let me warn you, even if you follow the directions to a tee, you are probably going to get really, really sick from this!

[Jmnhunter]

[Kidd]

Grebe, thanks for the chuckle .

PS.

I did find a recipe, tried it and it worked great. For antyone interested here it is.

1 Whole Pheasant

Apple or Cherry Wood

1/2 cup Pickling/canning Salt

6 cups Cold Water

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

3 tbsp Maple Syrup

2 tbsp White Wine Vinegar

2 tsp Pickling Spice

2 tbsp Honey

3 tsp Soy Sauce

1 cup Chicken Broth

1 Beer

Directions: In a large glass bowl or sealable bag, combine pickling salt, water, brown sugar, maple syrup, vinegar and pickling spice. Add pheasant and put in frig for at least four hours, turning occasionally. Drain, discard the brine and let the pheasant dry on paper towel for thirty minutes. In a small bowl combine honey and soy sauce. Start gas or charcoal grill on one side only and soak wood in water. Put wood on hot coals and put pan with chicken broth and beer over hot coals. Brush pheasant with honey soy mixture and place on side of grill opposite the coals. Cover and try to maintain a temperature of between 150 degrees and 250 degrees, opening grill as little as possible. Smoke pheasant for two to three hours adding more wood during the last hour.

[The Grebe]

Kidd...I'm going to copy the smoked Pheasant recp. that sounds really good and will work just as well with Chicken as a substitute, I'm sure.