Past & Present

[bungeejumper]

Pheasants do have a lot of feathers, it's probably the wrong thing to do but I skin them then cook them in foil or covered in bacon.

We used to practically live on pheasants when we lived in Lincolnshire, the local shoot was glad to get rid of them because they shot so many. They are too expensive in this area.

Yes, all of the birds sold around here are from the local shoot. The only parts of ours that looked edible were the breasts and, to a lesser extent, the rather scrawny legs. I have a vague and rather unsettling memory of a YouTube video in which somebody was removing the breast fillets very quickly and successfully by turning the pheasant inside out. Google at your peril, and preferably after you've had your breakfast.

BJ

[LadyGagarin]

I sometimes see pheasants - dead or alive - on the road. When it's the former, sadly I'm not surprised - they are clearly old-fashioned gentlemen to whom it never occurs that not everyone is as courteous as me, who will slam on the brakes* and wait for them to cross. I have never been to shoot them myself but I wonder if it would be as much of a challenge as hunting some more streetwise creatures, such as foxes.

*Only where safe to do so, obvs.

[LadyGagarin]

I was served pigeon pie once, whilst in a London hospital for a particularly unpleasant eye operation in the early '80s. I have never wished to repeat either experience.

[sg31]

When I lived in Brighton the local farmer used to shoot wood pigeons regularly, 200 in a day was not exceptional. The next day there were just as many as before.

I never asked him what he did with them, maybe he supplied posh restaurants.

As a vermin control it couldn't have been very effective and as a sport it can't be very challenging.

As an aside my grandfather was for many years a starling catcher. They were a nuisance near a food factory so he was paid a small amount per bird to catch them. Multiply that by several hundred and it was a decent living for those days. The old fella wasn't daft he would net them and get them counted then he would take them away for killing. He didn't kill many, most were released, he didn't want to do himself out of a job. The few killed he would eat himself

[Slarti]

I was served pigeon pie once, whilst in a London hospital for a particularly unpleasant eye operation in the early '80s. I have never wished to repeat either experience.

If it is like most hospital food, the only way you know what it is is that you are told.
In my experience it is far worse than school meals ever were.

Slarti

[bungeejumper]

If it is like most hospital food, the only way you know what it is is that you are told.
In my experience it is far worse than school meals ever were.

Postcode lottery, I suspect. I've only ever spent nine days in an NHS hospital ward, about five years ago, but the (outsourced) food was fine. Not much of it, I'll grant you, but then, I wasn't feeling well enough to want to eat more. And when I was, that was probably their cue to send me home.

Nothing, repeat nothing, will ever be as bad as mid-1960s school meals were. Oh, the boiled-to-death veg, and the shoe-leather that was alleged to have been meat, and the spotted dick with custard that you needed a Black & Decker to get through. And the scowls. Especially the scowls. They tell me that businessmen are still queueing up today for table reservations at School Dinners restaurants. Presumably in the hope that, for a sizeable extra fee, Matron will beat their bottoms with a plimsoll?

BJ

[NomoneyNohoney]

Ah - a guinea fowl I assume?

[Slarti]

If it is like most hospital food, the only way you know what it is is that you are told.
In my experience it is far worse than school meals ever were.

Postcode lottery, I suspect. I've only ever spent nine days in an NHS hospital ward, about five years ago, but the (outsourced) food was fine. Not much of it, I'll grant you, but then, I wasn't feeling well enough to want to eat more. And when I was, that was probably their cue to send me home.

Nothing, repeat nothing, will ever be as bad as mid-1960s school meals were. Oh, the boiled-to-death veg, and the shoe-leather that was alleged to have been meat, and the spotted dick with custard that you needed a Black & Decker to get through. And the scowls. Especially the scowls. They tell me that businessmen are still queueing up today for table reservations at School Dinners restaurants. Presumably in the hope that, for a sizeable extra fee, Matron will beat their bottoms with a plimsoll?

BJ

Probably true for both types of school and hospital food, postcode lottery.

I had school meals at 3 different schools one was pretty bad, one made no impression and the last was good.

The bad one was bed for the same reason that all hospital food that I have been exposed to was bad, the meal had been cooked quite some time before it was due to be served and then kept hot for an hour or 2 in various recepticles. Almost no food can survive that in a good condition.

Mind you, my sons lower school (first 2 years secondary) took the biscuit, everything smelled of boiled cabbage, even when cabbage hadn't been on the menu for a couple of weeks. no idea how they managed that.

Slarti

[SinBosun]

The quick method for getting the breast off a pheasant is dead simple and it works. The only thing is that you don't get the skin to cook them in.

Simply lay the pheasant (dead!) on its back on the floor. Pull out its wings and stand on them with your feet closely into the bird, close as you can get. Grab the legs and pull. Hey presto.

So much easier than plucking plucking.

SB

[DiamondEcho]

We've been following Masterchef on TV and I can't help but notice how often pigeon features on the menu. Yesterday it was one of the top dishes at a michelin starred London restaurant. Today friends and I were discussing this and we all agreed that we'd be mortified if we had to dish up pigeon as a main meal. We all ate plenty during the war but now!!! I often shoot pigeon and rabbit but it all end up as food for the cats and dogs, I certainly wouldn't touch it and the thought of serving it to guests is a definite no no, but it would seem that people who go to posh restaurants are willing to pay a fortune to eat food that here we'd only give to the animals. Strange world. R6

I suppose it depends upon perspective. As a child [late 60-late 70s] my father would go and rough-shoot on local farms. For the likes of pigeons and rabbits, and they all ended in the pot, gorgeous! He was also was invited to the annual local round of organised game-shoots; pheasants, partridges and so on. I was routinely called to assist with the plucking duty AFAIR most of it ended up in stews or casseroles, and it was absolutely delicious. That was a very tough era for the economy, so food of that quality on the table was a heck of a treat/privilege to have access to.

Fast-forward and society has changed. Gun ownership [legal] is waaay lower. Shooting/hunting as a whole has become rather taboo. I imagine most of the above-mentioned game is not possible to farm, in the manner in which say salmon is farmed. And so game is now something that is available to the rich and the lucky few others. Additionally society has become extremely squeamish. It seems the younger generation tend not to favour meat if it resembles something that once lived, or much worse if served with two or more limbs still attached, and even worse if it has more flavour than chicken. There's a parallel in how venison is not a mainstream dish, perhaps because it can have quite a strong gamey flavour. Same with how most lamb these days appears to be young 'spring' lamb, rather than older more pungent mutton. And the less bones and 'work' involved between plate and mouth the better. But the game is no less healthy and delicious than it always was, and people who know and can afford it are willing to pay for it.

I guess posh restaurants have to try and offer "new" things that you wouldn't eat elsewhere. I've never had pigeon in my life. Would probably try it. Had ostrich, kangaroo, zebra...
Not very long ago, mangetout was something Kenyan farmers fed to their cattle. Now it is on every supermarket shelf. They laugh that Europeans eat it.

But game isn't 'new' at all. I think it went out of fashion, like real ale did, but now it's back though at a price. Pigeon is absolutely delicious IMO.
Kenyan farmers fed mange-tout to cattle? Is that true? Just it doesn't strike me as the kind of plant that would be native to East Africa. I realise a lot is grown there these days but what with their climate, lower cost-base, and air-freight then they can grow it cheaply for export. Back in the era I mentioned above my father had a big vegetable patch and grew all our veg except for potatoes. What are now branded as Mange-tou [French for eat-all, i.e. unlike regular garden peas] were previously known as sugar-snap peas, and my father grew those too.

[DiamondEcho]

What puts me off the idea these days is that I've now had to deal with pigeons as urban vermin - and trust me (I'll spare you the mucky details), there are few less decorous or more squalid lifestyles out there. Some of the nastiest diseases are endemic. And if I were eating pigeon, I'd want to know exactly where it had been bred. Trafalgar Square (or any urban environment, for that matter) definitely wouldn't make it. BJ

The kind of pigeon that is intended for eating is the 'wood pigeon', there's is a clue to where they invariably live and it's not Trafalgar Square The kind you see in cities are IME known as feral pigeons, their plumage is different and has many varieties. I would neeeever knowingly eat the latter!

[DiamondEcho]

I sometimes see pheasants - dead or alive - on the road. When it's the former, sadly I'm not surprised - they are clearly old-fashioned gentlemen to whom it never occurs that not everyone is as courteous as me, who will slam on the brakes* and wait for them to cross.

When I was a lad, if there was a pheasant on the road the driver would, when convenient, veer and hit it without flattening it. Then if that had succeeded it would be chucked in the boot before anyone else, god forbid the farmer who was it's owner, was there to witness it. We used to get quite a bit of roadkill like that in season. And since pheasants are bad flyers and apparently very pea-brained, more often that not they'd effectively commit suicide by launching themselves at or under the car, so they could be positvely hard to avoid.

[Rhyd6]

The only thing that can compete with a pheasant in the suicide stakes is a sheep. At least a pheasant is usually trying to escape from something when it flies into the path of a car but a sheep will just die on you for the hell of it.

R6

[swill453]

What are now branded as Mange-tou [French for eat-all, i.e. unlike regular garden peas] were previously known as sugar-snap peas, and my father grew those too.

They actually have both, distinguished by how much of a pea grows inside them.
e.g.
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=293952968
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=293953011

Scott.

[DiamondEcho]

And then there are Snow peas. That is what they're called in Asia, but IME they're close to or the same as mange-tout.
http://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-diff ... nce-205118

[Slarti]

Back in the era I mentioned above my father had a big vegetable patch and grew all our veg except for potatoes. What are now branded as Mange-tou [French for eat-all, i.e. unlike regular garden peas] were previously known as sugar-snap peas, and my father grew those too.

Sugar-snap peas are quite a bit different to Mangetout, having much more body and texture. And, in my opinion, a much better flavour.

Slarti

[UncleEbenezer]

If we eat the pods of mangetout and sugar snaps, why not the pods of regular peas?

If it's just that they're a bit tough/stringy, one could try any number of culinary processes to deal with that.