Roadkill- Pheasant

[Cybercabz]

Is it ok to pick up a roadkill pheasant to take home to eat.
How can you tell if it is safe to consume.
What needs to be done to prepare it if it is ok Ie gutting etc

[DTCwordfan]

If it's absolutely fresh, it's okay - we used to have pairs of cars going around the 'ampshire lanes, the first one killing, the second to pick them up, the law being the first car can't pick it up....don't know if that is still the case.

Conventional gut and crop out and pluck - and it's fine. If in doubt, good dog food perhaps.

[DTCwordfan]

[Cybercabz]

how do you know how fresh it is if you just come accross it?

[Prudie]

I'd probably smell it and wouldn't touch anything that had been squashed or with open wounds. Actually I wouldn't do this in a million years but not for any good reason.

[starone]

Don't see why not as long as it is not too badly damaged. My friends who go shooting and occasionally pass a brace of pheasants to me only eat the breasts but as I am extremely stingy I use all of the bird. First of all you have to cut off the head, legs and wings then you peel off the skin which will come away with the feathers on. Wash well, and widen the opening at the bottom to remove the insides (not pleasant). Wash again and boil in a large saucepan for an hour or two. Then remove all the meat from the bones and if possible mince
them as there are small bones which you can remove while mincing.

[starone]

Bones are too small for dogs they would choke on them. If you are only using breasts, far easier of course.

[Cybercabz]

if its warm will that mean its fresh??

[Mamyalynne]

Only on a cold day - ideally roadkill is best collected as you see it hit.

[Samuraisan]

Roadkill ! Warm roadkill ! Are you kidding ? I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. Could be have had a disease.

[tonyav]

I always have trouble removing them from the radiator grill.

[DTCwordfan]

Should go to Texas for road kill - they think Armadillos are Texan oysters on the half shell.......

[DTCwordfan]

Samuraisan - no different to blasting them out of the air, the difference being the bullet is over a tonne and the car behind acts as the spaniel/lab/setter etc in being the collection agent.

[237SJ]

Pheasants are hung for days before being eaten anyway so it doesn`t need to be fresh (not that I would want to eat road kill)

[Clanad]

As with any pheasant, but especially for road-killed birds, the best way to prepare them is simply skin, gut and nail the carcass to a 5 inch by 12 inch cedar board... place in the oven for at least an hour, remove, take the pheasant off and throw it away (far away)... eat the board... sauce to your taste, of course...

[Prudie]

^ that's an american pheasant though :-)

[starone]

Fussy lot! Obvious you have never been really hungry! I can remember eating the core of an apple which someone had finished with and left with a little bit of apple on. Delicious. Deprived childhood!

[starone]

Pheasants will quite often run along the ground rather than fly, that is why they have beaters to beat the bushes and make them fly up to get shot at, poor little things. Personally, I could not shoot anything but will eat it if someone else has shot it. They are easy to road kill because of this, they do not realise the car is going to kill them so they stay on the ground.

[237SJ]

I wouldn`t say that people are fussy - it`s just that you tend to hang a pheasant for about a week before eating it. If you don`t it will be tough and tasteless. The longer you hang it, the more flavour it has. I don`t like pheasant as I don`t like food that has a gamey taste