A properly plucked bird makes a beautiful table presentation
Plucking wild game birds isn't difficult, but it can be time-consuming. Like any task, the more effort and concentration you put into plucking, the better the appearance of your finished bird. Thin-skinned upland birds, such as pheasants and grouse, pluck easier than thick-skinned waterfowl. The more birds you pluck, the more you'll develop a feel for which birds are the best and easiest for plucking. Here are two common plucking methods.
Instructions
Dry Plucking
1. Lay a bird on its back.
2. Pinch a small amount of feathers between your thumb and forefinger while holding the bird steady with your opposite hand.
3. Lift feathers toward the head, against the grain of their growth pattern, to remove them. If feathers do not remove easily, pinch a smaller amount. Place plucked feathers in a trash can.
4. Pluck feathers from the bird's entire breast and back and from the legs and wings to the elbow joints. Be meticulous. Some areas, such as the wings, have tiny feathers that are painstaking to remove.
5. Snap the wings at the elbows by bending the joint the opposite direction of its natural motion. After the bone breaks, cut the tendons with a knife to remove the rest of the wing. Do the same with the legs.
6. Snap the neck where it attaches to the back. Cut it off with a knife.
7. Slice off the tail area crossways to the body.
8. Reach inside the body cavity and pull out the internal organs. A gut hook blade on a bird-cleaning knife makes removing organs from small cavities easier.
9. Rinse the body cavity with water.
Wet Plucking
10. Fill a large pot with water. It must be large enough to accommodate most of the bird.
11. Heat the water to about 150 degrees. It should not be boiling.
12. Grasp the bird by the feet and dunk it into the scalding water for 30 seconds.
13. Remove the bird from the water and allow it to dry until the water stops running off it. Repeat the plunge two more times.
14. Pluck the bird and remove the head, wings, legs and entrails in the same manner you would a dry-plucked bird.
Tags: body cavity, with knife, with water