On Hanging Pheasants

Comment

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Pheasants hanging to age in the fridge.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

For several years after I began hunting, I recoiled at the idea of hanging game birds. The idea of hanging shot pheasants or partridges undrawn and in the feathers for days and days just did not seem terribly hygienic or sane to me. Old texts wax rhapsodic about the sublime flavor of “high” game, which usually means pheasants and usually means birds that have hung for more than a week. This, I decided, was madness.

I was wrong.

So I took a systematic look at the science of hanging pheasants and other game birds.

Nearly everyone who reads this space would probably agree with me that dry-aged beef is the finest expression of that meat. It is concentrated, savory and tender — and very expensive because dry-aging necessarily means a layer of crusty, slightly moldy ick on the outer edges of the meat. This is cut off before selling or serving.

Hanging beef and venison is important in part because these animals tend to be dispatched at about 18 months to 2 years old — old enough to get a tad tough on the teeth. Think about it: A whitetail buck sporting trophy antlers is likely to be 4 to 7 years old. Conversely, we don’t hang pork because hogs are slaughtered young. Ditto with domestic chickens. Young animals are already tender, so that aspect of aging isn’t needed.

Enter the pheasant. A pheasant really is a “ditch chicken.” It is a close cousin of the domestic chicken and when eaten fresh has, as Brillat-Savarin puts it in his The Physiology of Taste, “nothing distinguishing about it. It is neither as delicate as a pullet, nor as savorous as a quail.”

Those who have eaten fresh pheasant — and by fresh I mean un-hung — can’t help but thinking:  “So what? This just seems like a slightly tough and slightly gamy chicken.” They are of course correct, especially with pen-raised birds.

So for my initial experiment I put our four pheasants in the salami fridge, which is set at 55°F. One had a big open spot on it where the breast skin had been ripped, so that bird I plucked after just one day. More on him later.

Off to the library. One of my idiosyncrasies (I have many) is that I collect game cookery books. I have many, and several discuss hanging pheasants.

The great Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin doesn’t give a timetable, but says, “the peak is reached when the pheasant begins to decompose; its aroma develops, and mixes with an oil which in order to form must undergo a certain amount of fermentation, just as the oil in coffee can only be drawn out by roasting it.” Sounds pretty hardcore.

Roy Wall wrote in 1945: “The flesh of either wild game or domesticated animals and fowl can certainly be improved by aging, but it is my opinion that there must be a limit to the aging process…aging in the open air for 10 days or a month, according to weather conditions, is, in my opinion, most beneficial to domestic and wild meat alike.”

Don’t freak out. Roy doesn’t specify what game he’s talking about there, and aging an old buck deer in proper conditions for a month isn’t such a crazy idea, although I’d prolly cut it down after two weeks. More recently, Clarissa Dickson Wright — one of the Two Fat Ladies, my favorite TV food personalities — says of pheasant: “Hang it you must, even if for only three days, for all meat must be allowed to rest and mature.” Clarissa’s preference is a week to 10 days.

The current Authoritative Source on All Things Meat is Englishman Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who in his The River Cottage Meat Book says “four or five days would be about right for me” if a bird is hung at 55°F.

This is what the food writers say, but to me that’s only a piece of the puzzle. What about science?

Four pheasants hanging
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

Fortunately science exists on the topic of hanging pheasants and other game birds. My best source is an Australian government publication that did some rigorous experiments. For example:

Pheasants hung for 9 days at 50°F have been found by overseas taste panels to be more acceptable than those hung for 4 days at 59°F or for 18 days at 41°F. The taste panels thought that the birds stored at 59°F were tougher than those held for longer periods at lower temperatures. Pheasants hung at 50°F became more ‘gamy’ in flavour and more tender with length of hanging.

Aha! One issue solved. Food writers rarely talk about temperature of hanging because most of them think about hanging pheasants outside, which is fine if you don’t live in Arizona, Louisiana, Texas or California; even in autumn it is often too warm to properly hang game. It seems 50°F is ideal, and the 55°F my fridge is set at is acceptable.

Furthermore, an English study from 1973 found that clostridia and e. coli bacteria form very rapidly once you get to about 60°F, but very slowly — and not at all in the case of clostridia — at 50°F.

That same study found that field care of the birds is vital. Under no circumstances should you allow pheasants to pile up in warm conditions because doing so will slow cooling so much that the dead birds will develop bacteria in their innards. This is no bueno.

All the bacteria and taste tests converge on two things: 50 to 55°F and 3 to 7 days. That’s your takeaway, folks.

Left undiscussed is the importance of feathers and innards. Brillat-Savarin speaks about a mysterious “oil,” and Wall talks about bacterial decomposition. Here’s my take: The feathers provide protection for the skin against drying out during aging. Pluck the feathers right away and you can still age the bird, but the skin will be unacceptably dried out and unusable.

As for the guts, I am on the fence here. I think they do add something: Fish guts will affect the fillets because of the animal’s digestive enzymes. No reason to think land animals aren’t the same way, although at 50 to 55°F this is going to take some time to develop — for what it’s worth, a pheasant’s body temperature runs about 105°F.

Yet, when I plucked and gutted my experimental pheasants I noticed two things: One, they were pretty dry inside, and two, the innards in three of the four birds looked fine and wholesome, not ratty and stinky. Maybe this je ne sais quoi does not appear until later.

All of which brings me to my own experiments with hanging pheasants. Like I mentioned before, I had one damaged bird I let hang for only a day. This bird’s body was drier and tighter than a fresh-killed bird, and I dry-plucked it because of the damage.

This pheasant went into a pheasant and pork pie, which turned out to be an outstanding dish. Hat tip to Fergus Henderson for the inspiration on this one. How was the pheasant? I noted two things: One, the bird browned better (less moisture?), and it was more flavorful — even after just one day.

That left three birds. I plucked the next one at three days. This is the beginning of the sweet spot in the Australian study. I noticed that this bird was pretty limp, but there was no bad smell and the fat and giblets looked pristine. I was, honestly, pretty shocked. I jointed this bird because that’s what I do with most pheasants; the legs and thighs always need more time than the breast.

The aging really came into play with the breast. It was soft, not unpleasantly so, but definitely less firm than the day-old bird or a fresh one. Then it hit me: These pheasants were pen-raised and had only been wandering around wild for days or weeks (months at the most). They were all young birds. I had originally planned to leave one bird for a full week, but scotched that idea immediately. I plucked the next two birds at 3 1/2 days and 4 days. I kept both whole.

Plucked pheasants on a platter
Photo by Hank Shaw

I’ve since done experiments on old roosters and they can be successfully aged for a full week. In fact, if you get an old, wild pheasant, 3 days would be a minimum for proper aging.

This of course with other game birds. Over the years I’ve come to these conclusions on hang time:

  • Pheasants, grouse, partridges, turkeys and geese I will hang 3 to 7 days, depending on how old they were. If you hang turkeys or geese you must eviscerate them, as they retain too much heat otherwise.
  • Pen-raised pheasants, all quail, woodcock, snipe and ducks I only age 1 to 3 days, again, depending on size and age. The smaller the bird and the younger the bird, the shorter the hang time.

And, to be honest, I rarely age my waterfowl this way anymore. If I want to age them, I do so in the fridge. The problem with ducks and geese is their down: It causes the birds to retain heat too long, and I end up getting a bit of gangrene on their butts, which is no bueno.

A few things you should know. Don’t try to wet-pluck an aged game bird as I instruct you to here. You must dry-pluck these birds because the skin gets looser and scalding did not seem to help one bit with the feathers. It was a major bummer to scald one bird and rip some of the skin. Dry-plucking, you should be warned, sucks. It takes forever, but is worth it for the results.

To eat the giblets or not? I’d say go for it for birds up to three days, if they have not been shot up. Any sign of ickiness in the innards and toss them at once. One way to tell if you are unsure is to render the fat the way you would with a duck. If it stinks, toss it.

So, to wrap up, here’s what I found:

  • Keep your birds as cool and as separate as possible in the field. Use a game strap, not the game bag in your vest. Separate your birds in the truck or put them in a cooler — do not get them wet!
  • Hanging your birds by the neck or feet does not matter, as several studies has shown.
  • Hang upland birds between 50 to 55°F for at least three days, up to a week with an old rooster. Old roosters will have horny beaks, blunt spurs and feet that look like they have been walked on for quite some time. They will also have a stiff, heavy keelbone. Hen pheasants only need 3 days.
  • Do not hang any game birds that have been gut-shot or are generally torn up. Butcher these immediately and use them for a pot pie.
  • Dry-pluck any bird that has hung for more than 3 days.
  • Wash and dry your birds after you pluck and draw them. Only then should you freeze them.

You May Also Like

French Garlic Chicken

Classic French 40 clove garlic chicken, made with pheasant. This recipe features thighs, and works with chicken, pheasant, rabbit or partridge.

Wild Rice Salad

A fresh and bright wild rice salad recipe that mimics Crisp and Green’s “wild child” salad. I use grouse, wild rice and dried wild berries.

Spanish Quail with Paprika and Onions

A Spanish recipe for quail stewed with paprika and onions. You then strain off the liquid and serve that with pasta. it’s a great date night dish.

Green Chile Chicken Soup

A recipe for Southwestern style green chile chicken soup, with roasted green Hatch chiles, white beans, greens and a rich broth.

About Hank Shaw

Hey there. Welcome to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, the internet’s largest source of recipes and know-how for wild foods. I am a chef, author, and yes, hunter, angler, gardener, forager and cook. Follow me on Instagram and on Facebook.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

230 Comments

  1. I hung my bird for 7 days in the garage while outdoor temps held between 34-60 degrees. I’ve just dry plucked and gutted the bird and I’m concerned the meat has spoiled. It turned blue in many areas and it smells rotten to me. I just went down to test my garage temp and discovered it is a few degrees warmer than outside. Any advice on whether the meat is safe to eat?
    PS- Love your book.

    Sean

    1. Sean: Blue? That’s a new one. I’d trust your nose. Sometimes the gut cavity will be rank, but the meat itself should have no smell. I’d probably toss them.

  2. I hung pheasants last season for between 2 and 4 days at approximately 50 degrees and noticed absolutely no difference in odor when cleaning them. The only thing I did notice on two of the 4 day birds, after plucking, was a darker color, generally in the area between the leg and base of the breast or on the back. It was under or within the skin but not on the surface, and is best described as closer to green in color and similar to an aging bruise. I found no odor in these birds at all. However I have to admit the color concerned me, thinking the birds had spoiled, so the family and I did not eat these. Can you comment on acceptable color changes we might see, possibly caused by bleeding from shot? Thanks.

    1. Matt: Yep, that’s the “green about the gills” color a long aged bird gets. It’s fine. I just cut that part off.

  3. Does the bird need to be gutted right away? Had a grouse hit our window in the morning but was not found until evening. Can it still be eaten. No doubt it broke its neck. No idea how soon it died.
    Thoughts?

    Thanks,

    1. How cold is it? If it’s below 50 degrees the whole time, you should be OK. And no, I don’t gut birds when I hang them.

  4. Hank: Have enjoyed some of the dove recipes this season and looking forward to using your guidance on pheasants and quail. Anticipating a great season, I am spending some time reading up. I have not aged a bird like you have recommended, am looking forward to it! Also, the preparation of the birds for the amazing recipes… great detail and commentary, thanks.

    Regarding the aging process, what’s next? What are your preferred recipes? Brining for simple roasting, pounding for schnitzel, piccata, or straight for the general tso’s recipe? Or point an aged bird towards the smoker or confit? (Or all of the above?)

    Considering some recipes emphasize thigh and leg, others breast, will you take an aged bird apart after the process and use for multiple recipes? End of the day, looking for your opinion on best treatment(s) of an aged Pheasant… Thanks for all of the guidance on upland game prep and the recipes.

    Many regards,
    John

    1. I age most of my pheasants, so I use them for all of these recipes. But if I had to pick a few, it’d be those that are simplest and that highlight the pheasant’s flavor, like the whole roast bird, or a simple stew or that Greek pasta dish.

  5. Thanks for the article, I was scouring the internet for some good sense advice, preferably with some science, on how to hang and age poultry, and this article was exactly what I was looking for in a jungle of useless others! Have a nice day!

  6. I always thought that plucking a cold bird is that much harder then a warm freshly killed one?? or is that a myth?? and wouldn’t resting/aging a bird in the fridge have a similar effect then hanging it?
    I had a goose about 1,5 years old dealt to on Friday, plugged it, gutted and stuck it in the fridge for almost 3 days. I was expecting a shoe sole but it turned out absolutely amazing!! so now I am unsure was it the 3 days or the low temp roasting?!

  7. Hi. This was a fabulous post. Just a few questions. I live in Salt Lake City UT, and am raising two geese for meat. They will be ready around late July, which is the hottest time of year. I have a basement that stays relatively cool, would that be an acceptable place to hang them?

  8. Thank you for this article and the work you have done. I have Muscovy ducks taking over my place, some of them getting to be 4 yrs old and kind of big, no they ARE big. I have read that they can be a delicacy, so I must be doing something wrong. Can I be confident that hanging will help, at least with the older quite handsome drakes? I have only butchered 4 younger ducks, cooked one, it was a disappointment. I have 7 four months old at the moment, they need to be dealt with now. Do I also hang these for at least a day? Thank you

  9. Well in the heart of South Louisiana’s Cajun country there is actually a French word for the process of hanging game. In French a pheasant is a faisan. The word that I am referring to is faisander. It is often used to describe something that is rotting or getting a little “gamey” (maybe even an old tennis shoe) but traces back to the process of hanging game, namely pheasant. Not many pheasants in South Louisiana anymore, however the holdover word is still used to describe the aging of most any meat. The game, ducks or geese or whatever, is usually hung by the leg long enough for the bird to “drop”. That is, the weight of the bird pulling against the decomposed joint actually dislocates it and the bird hangs a little lower. Thats the barometer to let one know that it is ready for the pot.

  10. John: They’re done for. Once anything’s been frozen, you can no longer age it well. Freezing kills the enzymes. I’d pluck and eat as normal, but you can’t re-freeze the meat until it’s cooked again or it will get really mushy. Sorry!

  11. I read several years ago about hanging birds, and it has always captivated my imagination. Or, should I say, I’ve always been curious about it.
    I hunted a couple days in S Dakota, and got 3 birds on the first day. I gutted them but otherwise left the feathers on and put the birds in paper bags in my hosts refrigerator.
    They sat in the back of the truck in the garage for a few days after my return home in Wisconsin, and I’d guess the temperature was a little cooler than 50, but not cold enough to freeze the birds.
    I believe the birds we ate did taste better. I love hunting pheasants, but I’ve never been overly excited about the taste. Now that I have more information, I’m keen to try again and see how it works out!
    Thank you for the information.

  12. Hi there & thank you for your articles! A friend of mine called me last night & said the hunters who lease her land gave her a goose yesterday. I’m assuming they shot it that day. She offered it to me & said it’s outside, frozen, but hasn’t been gutted or plucked (which is what lead me to your article to see if it would still be safe to clean & eat as I’ve only ever dealt with fresh chickens or grouse). I do not know yet if it was gut shot, but will find out when I pick it up this afternoon. But now my question is; it has been sitting in her garage since they gave it to her. It was never hung up. Would that affect the safety of the meat (as long as it wasn’t gut shot)? Thanks so much.

  13. I have a goose farm. A USDA plant does the butchering for me and I then receive them back frozen a week later. So, I havent been intimately involved with their slaughtering as a rule.

    Twice I have had to kill healthy geese (accidents happen) and decided to eat them after plucking. Both times they were too tough to eat. And last spring I had a friend cull an aggressive gander. He reported that he was too tough to eat too.

    So. Even though they are domestic and pastured and young (mine were under 6 months, but the bad gander was two years) do they still need hanging? The Two Fat Ladies had a Xmas special with goose and they had the farmer hang their domestic goose for a week prior to his plucking and then their roasting it.(I think it was a week)and with all innards and feathers intact.

    If I decide to cull any more young ganders, should I hang them and for how long? I hate wasting the meat again.

    Thanks for this article! I too got kind of “erpy” about the whole hanging idea as I looked into it further. Especially glad they dont smell as bad as Id feared they might.

  14. Would hanging help or hinder coots? I usually just skin and de-fat them when I get home from a hunt, but I’ve heard some hunters suggest breasting them out right away in the field. The sooner the better.

  15. Hi Hank,

    what are you thoughts on hanging pheasants that have been cleaned/gutted? The pheasants that I get are from hunting and I would assume that at least one or more pellet(s) have gone through the body cavity.

    Thank you,

    Carey

  16. Paul: Breast shot is fine, but shot back in the guts near the vent and tail is no good. You kinda need to feel around down there to see if it’s been perforated. It’s fine if you miss one pellet, but if the shooter was too far back on the bird, best to deal with it immediately.

  17. Hi, I really enjoyed your culinary research regards the humble pheasant and improving the flavour. Could you please clarify something for me. I get all of my pheasant off the shoot, and 90% of the time the shot has passed straight through the breasts and chest cavity. When you say “Do not hang any game birds that have been gut-shot” would this include the birds as I have just described?

    My favourite recipe is pan fried pheasant breast, flambeed in Tequila, served on a bed of basmati rice and stir fried baby corn, broccoli and sweetcorn.

    All the best,
    Paul