Cleaning Gamebirds

[MedicDan]

I am going hunting for grouse and some geese later today , how to you clean them?

[EatSleepFish]

I dont know about geese, but for grouse you step on the base of the wings, then take the legs (of the bird), and pull up. this will then leave you with the breast and the wings, which you just snap or cut off with game scissors

[riverrat56]

I clean upland birds by first skinning them, cut of the wings and the feet at the knee joint, then cut a slit in the skin on the breast, pull the skin off and cut off the head, then eiher gut the carcas or remove the breast by holding the back and putting your finger in the hole by the neck and pulling up and save the legs.

Geese you can either pluck off all the feathers and then gut them (don't recommend) or you can pluck the breast area and then skin the breasts and cut them off the body, after that is done you can remove the legs.

Good luck hunting

[Studer]

I had to clean my goose the other day and just cut right under the skin on top of the breasts (just below the neck). Cut the skin away like you would on a deer. Keep cutting away the tallow around the breasts and get to the bone where the stomach starts (perpindicular to the breast bone...DO NOT CUT INTO THE STOMACH AREA...STINKY!!) Then just cut down the breast bone and around the breast and there you have it!!!

[CASTnBLAST]

Quote:

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I dont know about geese, but for grouse you step on the base of the wings, then take the legs (of the bird), and pull up. this will then leave you with the breast and the wings, which you just snap or cut off with game scissors

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Just make sure to do this while the bird is relatively a fresh kill otherwise the legs will simply pull away from the rest of the carcass.

[Rosalita]

In my neck of the woods, just “breasting” a grouse or as we mistakenly call them “partridge” is looked down upon and considered wanton waste. For that matter, leaving the deer heart in the guts is also cause for complaint. Here is the quick and easy method which my father taught me years ago. It will work a lot better on a warm bird but will still work easily on cold ones. This also works quite efficiently on pheasant. The only downfall of this technique is that the skin must be removed; however, if you were already “breasting,” you probably don’t care about the skin. I should take some stills of this process, so everyone could see. I will try to describe it. Once you have it down, you should be able to clean/field dress an entire bird in less than a minute.

First of all, firmly grab the feathered skin at the front of the base of one leg where the small feathers meet the scaled portion on the foot. Make sure to hold the skin firmly. Pull the feathered skin upward (towards the head). This will strip most of the feathers and skin from the leg through and including that side of the breast. If feathered skin remains on the back of the leg, repeat the process for the back of the leg up the back of the bird. Then, do the same with the other side. Now for the wings, at the base of the wings (where the wing meets the shoulder next the breast), grab the top of the wing’s skin and feathers at this spot. Again pull away from the bird down (parallel with) the wing in one firm motion. Then, do the same for the underside of the wing; firmly grab the skin and feathers in the bird’s armpit (wing pit). Firmly pull away from the bird down (parallel with) the underside of the wing. Follow the same procedure for the other wing. If you followed the wing steps correctly, the wings should be free of feathers and skin from the wing socket to the joint before only the longest flight feathers. Then, direct your attention to the back of the bird. Where the neck meets the back, firmly grab the skin and feathers and pull them down (parallel with) the bird. Then, grab the tail of the bird (that knobby thing with the pretty fan feathers) and give it a firm twist and pull it off in one chunk. I think everyone knows how to pull off the head. After the head is off, pull off the neck skin and feathers by grabbing the feathered skin at the base of the neck and pulling it off where the head used to be. At this stage, 95% of the skin and feathers should be gone. I like to pull any remaining feathered skin from the leg down (towards the toes) past the joint where the feathers meet the scales to make cutting later easier. You may have a feather here and there to clean up. The main thing to remember in any of the above steps is to hold the skin firmly not individual feathers and to pull along (parallel) and not away from the body.

Ok, so you are free of skin and feathers. Now, at the base/bottom of the breast there is a thin membrane which you must plunge your fingers through to get to the body cavity. I grab the back/bottom of the bird with one hand and hinge the breast up with my other hand to reveal the guts. Grab the gizzard (the purple-brownish two inch, round organ. Pull the guts out and free the anus by ripping the skin to each side of the anus. The heart will conveniently remain attached at the top of the inside body cavity for cleaning later. I place the gizzard back into the body cavity to be cleaned later. Your bird is now field dressed. I realize that I took a long time describing it, but once you try it, you will easily know what I am describing and eventually become quite efficient at the process. Each pull of skin and feathers just takes a second. If you shot your bird in the head, your hands will be very clean at the end even after gutting the bird, because the unscathed guts are not dirty (just like a deer). The legs are quite tasty. The thighs have a couple of good bites each. The lower leg has some chewing on it as well, but just be mindful of the ligaments. The wings have some chewing as well.

A grouse gizzard is almost as large as a chicken’s. They will clean up and separate easier if they are allowed to cool. On the largest meaty edge of the gizzard, cut carefully down until you hit the light gray inner pouch. There is a thin area here which you will need to cut through. If you go too far, you will cut into the inner pouch. The thin membrane is light and the gizzard sac is dark. You don’t want to cut too deep because the gizzard is full of grit. Once you have about an inch to an inch and a half cut with the inner membrane exposed but not cut into, pull the gizzard from the inner dark gray membrane. This requires a bit of practice. After the inner sac is removed, cut off the connecting tubes from the gizzard. Your gizzard should now look like any other chicken gizzard.

A bird cleaned in this fashion can be cooked whole or cut up later.

[BLACKJACK]

Rosalita, I also think its a waste when people toss the legs on a pheasant, granted the lower part of the leg has the strings/tendons in it, but that thigh meat is some of the best meat on the pheasant.

When I clean a pheasant, I just strip the skin off the breast, fillet out each half of the breast, that gives you two nice chunks of meat. Then on the legs, skin them out and cut the feet off, then with your knife, starting from the rear, cut toward the upper leg joint where it joins the back. Once you get to the joint, sever it, then pull the leg and thigh off. If you do it right, you'll get the meat along the lower back to come off with the legs. So then you end up with two breast chunks and two leg/thigh pieces. The best part is that you never have to get into the $hitty guts that might be shot up. Of course if you're traveling, this method doesn't work.

I've even started packaging the legs and breasts up seperately, I can use the breasts in a stir fry and the legs in a slow roaster recipe.

[doser]

Eatsleep,

This is exactly how I clean my Pheasants and when they are still warm it works the best. Nothing goes to waste. After the bird is pulled apart you just cut the legs off the bottom part. No skinning plucking or gutting.