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ALL BIRDS ARE GOOD TO EAT:

When they are moulting and unable to fly, it is not difficult to corner them on foot. You bait them either with flesh or grains.

EGGS = SUREST FOOD SOURCE:

ALL COMESTIBLES WHATEVER IS THE DEVELOPMENT STAGE, THEY ARE ONE OF THE SUREST FOOD SOURCE. Once hard boiled they keep several days

Even the riper eggs or any eggs it may be possible to secure are nourishing. If one has a continue access to a large colony at nesting time one way to be assured of fresh eggs is to mark whatever is already in the nest perhaps removing all but a few if conditions seem to justify it.

PREPARING BIRDS:

Birds are prepared in much the same way as animals. Though they are usually plucked and cooked with the skin on instead of being skinned. Follow the sequence below.

BLEEDING:

Kill birds by stretching their necks, then cut the throat and hang head-down to bleed. Or kill them by cutting just under the tongue severing main nerve and main artery. The bird dies easily and bleeds well.

Handle carrion eaters as little as possible they are more prone to infection, lice and ticks. Boil all carrion. Old crows, blackbirds and parrots are tough & best boiled. Young specimens can be roasted stuff the bird with herbs & fruits.

PLUCKING:

REMEMBER that whatever bird, the feathers come off just before the cooking time, only then and NEVER before.

It is easiest straight after the killing while the bird is still warm. Hot water can be used to loosen feathers except in the case of water-birds and seabirds in which it tends to tighten them.

If you have more birds then time, you can strip off skin & feathers in 1 operation.

Keep feathers for arrow flights and insulation. Start at the chest. For speed you can skin a bird but that wastes the food value of the skin.

CHECK THIS BIRD 1st. DICK!:

If you see a small pouch near where the neck disappears into the body, you pull that off to examine it & see what the species eats. Then you pull the bird open grasping it above and below the ribs.

Then we take out the viscera thus revealed, most of us will want to save the heart & liver. The gizzard is also good when opened and cleaned.

SKINNING THE BIRD:

Birds are often most easily skinned when hung by the separated hind legs. You cut around each ankle, you slit inside the leg to join a long cut made from the vent up the abdomen of the animal to the throat.

We do the same with each foreleg. Then we pull down the skin using the cutting edge whenever it becomes necessary to free the hide from the body.

Animals are carefully opened from vent up through the ribs and all the innards pulled out with as little cutting and puncturing as possible. Liver & kidneys and heart are the parts most often saved.

The flavour of small animals such as Muskrat is improved when care is taken to cut out the stringy white scent glands from the insides of the forelegs and thighs. If not, well: its beurkkk!

FISH-EATING-BIRD..: *

Some precautions MUST be taken when preparing any Fish-Eating-Bird.

YOU MUST CLEAN THEM OUT IMMEDIATELY AFTER KILLING.

For their flesh does not keep fresh more than 1 day. Other Ducks can keep one or 2 days without opening them. Also those fish-bird MUST be boiled with a lot of water for 45 minutes and let them drip off to remove the oily taste. (Beurk!)

You MUST also remove the 2 glands under the rump before cooking. This applies to all ducks. If not then beurkkk mud taste.

WILD FEATHER GAME #Gibier a plume#:*

In North America ALL WILD DUCKS ARE EDIBLE EXCEPT for the #Huart and some #becs de scie#*

Women often complain that wild ducks smell mud, fish, even cod oil, this is because they don't know that all ducks carry 2 small glands under the rump which MUST be removed Before cooking.

It's those glands that give this bad taste. This oil is not comestible but very helpful for the duck waterproofing.

Time between killing, gaming & eating is widely different between duck species, & is extremely important for the "Cook-King" art.

If the Bobwhite Quail is to be eaten as fresh as possible (at the end of the shotgun, hunter's expression), the Pheasant, Wild Duck and # Woodcock (Becasse)# *need to be gamy in order to bring up the taste.

Place the bird in a cool place well ventilated and with a net to protect it from flies, not in the fridge.

DUCK BRAZING & CAUTION:

Go for it, but be cautious to braise duck freshly killed too fast you will run into some... running problems. Better wait a while till the game has been gamy a day or two. Here's how to do it:

1) Remove the feathers. (Easier if you scald the duck first!)

2) A stick is run through the bird, you use it as a handle to grill the skin a bit and to burn any feather surplus.

3) Open the bird, eviscerate but keep the heart, liver, gizzard envelope which you can use for soup later.

4) Plant the 2 ends of dry wood fork on the back of the duck skin in order to maintain open the stomach part where the thorax bones have been removed. Salt and pepper powder it and turn it over hot embers for 45 minutes.

GAMING THE GAME:

To avoid to much gaming, one MUST as soon as the bird is killed split the chest skin at the base of the neck and to remove #la falle# , then to cut open the bird at the anal opening to remove the intestines.

Keep the heart, liver and gizzard separate and stuff the bird of moss, etc. to keep it fresh.

REMEMBER the gaming does not make the flesh spoiled but only mortified. The flesh before coming putrid (rotten) becomes tender then frees all its "#sucs"flavour#, aroma thus attains its peak in taste. (Mmm!)

It is that moment that the amateur waits for his cooking. So you MUST take good care to AVOID too much gaming thus spoiling the meat completely.

If the game has very apparent wounds you will oil them with olive oil. Take the bird by the legs with its head downward, and do your best to let the oil run under the feathers.

HEAT WARNING & CLEANING HOOK:

If the temperature is the Least Hot, you MUST empty the bird as soon as it is killed.

This is done quickly if you have made a "Cleaning hook" using a thin very straight Maple stick about 8 to 9 inches long.

Cut the branch just under the ramification thus making yourself a hook. Introduce the hook in the ass of the bird to get the intestine & pull it off.

This little operation done without delay keeps your bird away from an untimely fermentation which would compromise the steps of good gaming.

This however does not apply to the "Woodcock"* since it is the interiors which are the most precious condiments.

WATER GAME COOKING ETC.:

Most birds MUST be plucked. Cook it with its skin to retain the humidity and keep all nutritive value. After plucking, cut the head off empty it by opening it from the vent upward.

Wash it good all over with fresh water. Keep the gizzard, liver & heart to make a stew. Open the gizzard, remove its interior skin & whatever food in it

If its usually easier to pluck a bird after scalding it, the water fowl plucks better without scalding.

Once cooked some species will have more flavour if you remove the skin but will lose a part of their nutritive value by so doing.

In the case of scavenger birds such as the buzzard, vultures, you MUST boil them for at least 20 minutes to kill all parasites. Beurkkk.

Keep all feathers except for the vulture birds, they will be useful to isolate your shoes, clothes or render your bedding more comfy.

DRAWING (REMOVING INNARDS):

Make an incision from the vent to the tail. Put your hand in & draw out all the innards. Retain the heart and kidneys. Cut off the head and feet.

SEA BIRDS #2:

Such as Gulls, fish-eating Ducks etc. MUST be skinned to diminish the fishy taste. (Beurrrkkk!)

The craw or first stomach should be ALWAYS checked as the content if not digested may provide nutritious foods & BAIT TIPS.

BEE WAX & CLEANING DUCKS & WATER FOWLS:

Beside making candles, waterproofing matches, wax is very precious in the use of cleaning waterfowls without a mess.

1) Remove by hand the biggest amount of feathers from the back and front but without exaggerating the operation nor removing the down itself.

2) Cut the wings off and the legs.

3) Melt a lump of wax in boiling water & fill a pail of cold water.

4) Dip the duck in the hot water a few times, hold it by the head.

5) Now dip the duck in the cold water pail. If you have many ducks you will have to change that water to keep it cold.

6) Place the duck in a cold place so that the wax can harden good. Once this done you can pluck the duck easy in a jiffy and no messy no sirry, yes honey!

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