Tastiest game bird?

[Vaino]

Have eaten nearly all the game birds including pheasant, ruffed and blue grouse, quail, woodcock, chukars, turkeys and Hungarian partridge and enjoyed them all.

But the one game bird that tastes the best to me are quail. Not so many years ago Wisconsin had quite a few quail and I hunted them over my English Setters and pointers and they sat very tight and didn't flush wild . The quail found in WI are quite a bit larger than the Southern quail.....possibly due to the harsher winters, although it was these same winters that thinned their numbers to the point of being nearly extinct in WI.

Quail are the only gamebird that I cut down the back and w/ pheasants, are the only game birds that are cooked whole. With the rest, only the breasts are eaten.

Do others have a favorite game bird that they've eaten?......Fred

 

[Rifleman1776]

Can't say that I have eaten enough of a variety to have a favorite. But, my favorite memories of eating game birds is with pheasants. When in high school, myself and two buddies had a hunting 'club'. We frequently went pheasant hunting in corn fields after harvest. That was back in the days before those fields became subdivisions. We also hunted squirrels and rabbits but pheasant were the most sought after quarry. At the end of the season one of our mothers would fry up all our harvest and we would have a big, really big, feed. I miss those days and the memories. BTW, going ff here. None of us could afford to buy shotgun ammo by the box. I saved my change and bought several shells at a time. Believe it was 5 cents a round. Mighty precious, hated to miss a bird.

 

[Vaino]

I've eaten a lot of pheasants and in my early renegade days trapped many of them.

Not too far from the house was a large fenced in area that housed the mentally challenged and the MDs owned large homes w/in the fence. The pheasant population was enormous because as in many cities, no predators or hunting.

I would sneak in at night and set the big wooden rat traps baited w/ saltine crackers and pick up the traps early the next AM....one year caught 57 pheasants. Tried corn kernels but the pheasants lifted them off them trip plate and didn't trip the "slammer"....broken crackers had to be pecked at and the wire frame would kill them instantly. My Mother became quite a gourmet chef preparing these pheasants..

I know how you must hsve felt w/ limited money and that's the reason many kids were good shots.....too expensive and disappointing to miss......Fred

 

[tenngun]

The one that’s on the plate. Turkey is great, I don’t hunt bob white or dove any more, but enjoyed them when I did. Rocky Mountain quail taken in the high desert of New Mexico cooked over sage brush and mesquite out on the land with my boyhood friends was the best.

 

[Paul Herbst]

flehto, I must agree with you. Many years ago Kentucky had a program trying to keep the quail population stable. Dad signed up for the program. We borrowed one of Grandma's hen houses for the chicks and we already had a huge incubator. I was elected swamper. :grin: When the birds were to be emancipated I caught them and put them into the boxes for transport. We released coveys in Campbell, Pendleton, Harrison and Robertson counties as Dad knew farmers in the entire region, having repaired their tractors and such. On several occasions we would hunt with those folks the following fall and would scratch down a few birds. Dad had a recipe that entailed him baking them in a bed of bread dressing. Wonderful meal.

Dad, that program, the recipe and most of those farms are long since gone. I miss those times.

 

[BillinOregon]

I prefer quail and chukar.
I think pheasants and wild turkey are overrated.

 

[satx78247]

Make mine young SNOW GEESE baked Cajun style, with rice/mushroom dressing.

yours, satx

 

[nhmoose]

IMHO Grouse is best . Pheasant in NE is like small chicken. Never seen a quail and woodcock tastes like a worm should.

I have shot grouse, turkey, woodcock , pheasant. Only one in my extended family eat the wood **** and his family loves them. They get all we shoot.

I like freezer turkey way more than wild.

Ducks and geese my son and I grind with pork and make burgers.

 

[Black Hand]

I've eaten Swan, Turkey (wild), Pheasant, Teal, Mallard, Canada Goose and Grouse (Ruffed & Blue). To tell the truth, it is very difficult to rate the game birds I've eaten, as they were all delicious.

 

[satx78247]

I have to ask: What was SWAN like as a meal & how did you prepare it for the table??
(I've been offered "invasive swans" that have been "culled" from private property, from time to time.)

yours, satx

 

[R.C.BINGAMAN]

Canada goose marinated in cranberry juice slow baked till a medium wellness served with a home made cranberry orange compote over wild rice. They also make a fine jerky, R.C.

 

[Vaino]

Some yrs when the grouse population is on the low cycle and in order to use the dogs, our hunting turns to woodcock. The small, dark breasts are quite delicious but w/ a slight liver taste.

Woodcock have a unique way of getting earth worms in dry weather. They beat their wings on the ground and the worms think it's raining and come up from their deep levels to a depth that can be reached by the woodcock's prehensile beak. :wink:

The English have a dish that's called "trail" and its the woodcock intestines still filled w/ earth worms. They're fried w/ seasoning to taste.....Fred

 

[Black Hand]

I have to ask: What was SWAN like as a meal & how did you prepare it for the table??
(I've been offered "invasive swans" that have been "culled" from private property, from time to time.)

yours, satx

Tender, red meat with a beefy flavor. It was simply prepared by roasting the breast over a fire or frying in a little bacon grease.

 

[Black Hand]

The English have a dish that's called "trail" and its the woodcock intestines still filled w/ earth worms. They're fried w/ seasoning to taste...

Sounds as if it could be a little gritty.

 

[satx78247]

THANKS, tex

 

[Artificer]

Hi Fred,

Having grown up in Iowa only a couple miles from the Mississippi River; we hunted and ate Pheasants, Quail, Geese and Ducks - as far as game birds were concerned. Since we could hunt on my Aunt and Uncle's (and his Mother's) farms, we got a LOT of Quail and Pheasants - besides rabbits and squirrels.

My Maternal Grandmother lived with us from the time I was around 4 and while a wonderful cook and baker, she was not a gourmet cook. Her cooked Quail were OK, but I have tasted much better cooked wild Quail later on in life.

Pheasant was my number one favorite.

Never had Grouse and I would like to give that a try one day

I really did not care for Goose that much and really didn't like wild duck at all, other than Teal a little bit. We shot quite a few species of ducks and none of them tasted good to me.

Matter of fact, I asked Dad about 10 years ago why we had not had duck more often for supper when we shot so many, though I remembered we gave many away to poorer people than us. He admitted he hated to eat wild duck and the only reason we had wild duck at all was to stretch the budget and most often because both my Grandmothers had grown up on the Mississippi as poor folk, who had eaten and still liked a lot of fish and wild game - like duck.

Haven't yet met someone who could cook a Wild Turkey that tastes really good, after having grown up on farm raised turkeys. Matter of fact when I proudly displayed the one Wild Turkey I have shot here in Virginia to Dad, he asked me, "What do you think you are going to do with that?" When I suggested I would try to get Mom to cook it, he emphatically stated he had brought home a wild turkey a couple years before and it stunk up the house so much that Mom almost divorced him. (She really did not know how to cook a Wild Turkey, as we did not have them in Iowa.) Had no trouble giving my Turkey away to another club member, though.

Going ff to say my absolute favorite wild game was Catfish taken from the Mississippi River and what we called "fiddlers." Those were Catfish that ran 10 to 14 inches long when caught. Farm Raised Catfish don't have near the taste of the ones that came out of the Mississippi. Smoked Mississippi River Sturgeon was my second favorite and like a gourmet treat to us. Sturgeon fishing was outlawed for a few decades on the Mississippi River and I finally had some again in the early 2,000's. It tasted every bit as good as it did from 30 years before, except it now seemed too salty - since I began restricting my salt intake.

Gus

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I've had lots of birds as well. Pheasant, quail, dove, chukkar, woodcock, Canada goose, snow goose, black duck, wood duck, mallard, and I'd have to agree, I like chukkar (grouse) and quail.

Now the chukkar were farm raised, but the quail were wild, but I thought the chukkar had a bit better flavor. Dove and pheasant were good eating, but bland. Duck was pretty good too, and Canada geese and snow geese tasted to me like well cooked roast beef.

LD

 

[Juice Jaws]

Ate doves, ducks, quail, geese, pheasant, and my favorite eating game bird hands down are DOVES

 

[Vaino]

My son does an excellent job w/ wild turkeys by smoking them....but they can be too dry if over smoked or the temp is too high. He brines the turkey before smoking.

Have had bad experiences w/ waterfowl....both ducks and geese. My son brought over a young goose and his Mother roasted it and it was OK. The next goose was an old one and it was way too tough w/ the result that the excellent gravy was used on toast...the goose was dumped.

I like domestic ducks {Muscovy} but wild ducks don't cut it for me. This was reinforced one day in Nov. when we took a break from grouse hunting. Shot a green headed mallard which when it hit the ground spewed a bunch of corn kernels from its crop.

Mt Dad who is a gourmet cook served the mallard w/ parsleyed potatoes ad a nice salad. Cut a piece of duck and looked at my Dad who had also begun chewing the duck and we both cleared our mouths...it was horiible. Even the med rare couldn't help the taste.

With quail being my first choice, my second would be ruffed grouse breasts.....grouse might have the biggest breat VS its total weight of all the game birds. Baked upside down w/ many holes poked into the breast bone, the seasonings and butter are well contained in the "hollow" but do seep into the meat through the holes.

All the game birds,{I don't consider waterfowl as game birds} can be delicious if properly cooked but some are, according to personal tastes, better than others.....Fred

 

[zimmerstutzen]

There are all varieties of recipes and even tastes. many of which are regional. A buddy once said I absolutely had to try his Mountain style barbequed turkey. Could have been beef or pork for all I knew. It was basically a spicy sauce bathing mystery meat. Couldn't taste the meat or even tell what it was because of the sauce. My favorite hands down is dove. No garlic, no tomatoes, or cheese. Fried up in a little butter and great eating. I lived in central Pennsylvania back when you could have two pheasants at dawn, dress them out and still be at the bus stop for school by 7:15 am. (And we did) Wide World Of Sports would come and film pheasant hunts in our area. The pheasants are long gone. And pheasant itself is good in a wild game sort of way. The breast is dryer than anything from Purdue, but has a special enjoyable taste. Especially when cured and slow smoked. Canada Goose is mainly palatable because of what it is cooked with.