Plucking Game Birds

[SpruceGoose]

I have been struggling to pluck my birds without tearing the skin all up so I did a test with a few grouse last weekend. Plucked one hot, one warm and one after 2 days of refrigeration. By far the bird after a couple days in the fridge plucked way better still a couple tears but all in all the best one. Followed by a quick go with a butane torch for the hair and it looked great. I know some submerge into boiling water prior to plucking but I haven't had great experiences with that in the past. Anyone have any thoughts or hints?

[TexasWalker]

Don't pluck them.

Just peel the skin and feathers off.

[SpruceGoose]

Thanks but seems like a bit of a waste to me, all the flavor is in the fat all the fat is on the skin.

[drag]

well you could try dipping the bird in hot water first then pluck and repeat when it gets cool . have hear it works

[adriaticum]

If you are plucking birds dunk them in hot water (not boiling) for 10 minutes and then pluck them.

[Grumpa Joe]

My mom used to do the hot water thing and add a little dish soap to it. Seems to work quite well but question doing it on anything small because it is still time intensive.

[Jim Prawn]

My dad used to get my mom to pluck all his grouse for like 30 years. Then we started hunting and after a while started skinning them. She loved us even more after that! Grouse dont have much fat on them and the meat itself is quite flavourful compared to a boring old chicken IMO. A little olive oil some seasoning and fry em up. I even keep the legs and make a mean grouse and sausage stew with gravy. We used to do the hot water thing for plucking chickens but their skin is much tougher than a grouse.
JP

[Kudu]

Plucking birds is a PITA......

Here's the solution ........


http://youtu.be/5pH_QbkASmA

[treehugger]

What are you shooting your birds with? If you're using shot they could be all torn up on the body making a pluck without tearing the skin pretty tough. I've found the scald thing effective for chickens but it only makes sense when you're doing a few

[SpruceGoose]

Thanks, Ill give that a shot.

[Bowzone_Mikey]

I worked at Lillydales Chicken plant when I was younger ... 100 thousand birds /day on ave

Birds are live hung on the line ... stunned in a heated salt brine ... throats slit ... bled out then thru the plunking machine ....

key word here is heated

dunk your birds in hot almost boiling water ... almost to Blanche them ... this opens the pores and allows the feathers to come out easier ...

think of yourself in a sauna .. your pores open ... same thing

[Bowzone_Mikey]

Plucking birds is a PITA......

Here's the solution ........


http://youtu.be/5pH_QbkASmA


good idea ... but I will garantee that prior to making that video ... he has never used that contraption that he made ...