Prepare a game bird in 10 easy steps!

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Prepare a game bird in 10 easy steps!

Any game bird can be a simple and easy dish to prepare.

By Amy Willcock

Tuesday, 18 December 2007

Game chef, Amy Willcock, gives a step-by-step guide to preparing game for the oven.

1: Start plucking at the legs and move on to the back, neck, breast and front.

2: Cut off the wings.

3: Singe all over to remove the quills.

4: Chop off the head.

5: Remove the crop.

6: Cut out the wish bone.

7: Cut a vent and draw out the guts.

8: Rinse the inside of the bird.

9: Remove the feet and pull out as many of the tendons as you can.

10: Cover in lard or bacon and truss with skin.

METHOD

- Start to pluck the legs first. Only take a few feathers at a time and pull them out with short, sharp tugs in the opposite direction from the way they grow.

- When the legs are finished pluck the back, going right up the neck. Then turn the bird over and pluck the breast, rest of the neck and the top of the wings.

- When the bird is fully plucked, cut off the wings at the first joint.

- Try not to tear the skin.

- Over a naked flame singe the bird all over to remove any quills.

- To draw the bird, cut off its head, leaving enough neck so you can easily draw back the skin to reach the crop.

- Pull back the skin and carefully pull out the crop, which can be just a flap of thickish skin or a bulge full of corn.

- Remove it and the wind pipe.

- Still at the head end, remove the wishbone for easy carving. Feel either side of the breasts and slide a knife in and gently remove it.

- Using scissors or a very sharp knife cut out the vent.

- Insert two fingers into the cavity of the bird and loosen the guts, then hook them around the heart and lungs and draw out the guts.

- Separate the liver, removing the bile sack and any green-tinted meat, the heart and the gizzard.

- Peel the membrane away from the gizzard and put it, the liver and the heart, if you are saving it to make pate, into a bowl of cold, salted water and set aside.

- To remove the feet, cut around the legs at the point where they change colour and have scales.

- Snap the legs and pull out as many tendons as possible with the point of a knife.

- Rinse the bird inside and out with cold water and wipe with kitchen paper.

- When you are ready to cook the bird, cover it with lard or bacon over the breasts and truss it with butcher's string.

Now you have your very own oven-ready bird!