Gift of a dead guinea

[cottontail farm]

I'd try it. As a hunter, first ducks on the water is at first light, if everything goes according to plan. Limit out by 10. Boat house at 11 and home by 12 to start processing. That is almost 6 hours dead. Rigor in full swing. It didn't kill me, but conventional butchering likes things bled out to be kosh or halal. Taste is different. Not bad, just different if it isn't bled.

Pheasants, squirrels, rabbits and even deer aren't bled until back at camp sometimes hours later. So, the guinea is still good. All depends on how you look at it.

Some pheasant hunters like to hang the pheasant by the neck until the body falls before processing it. "tenderizes the meat" they say.

Yes, you can pluck after skinning. Not easily, but if you only want a few feathers, no issue. Keep the clean ones. Skin may tear. You can also tan the hide and preserve it for whatever.

Cheers!

Have you ever dry aged a duck? What did you think of it if you did?

 

[RUNuts]

No, never tried it. Humidity & heat really limits that practice down here. I looked into it & came to the conclusion that you'd need a walk in refrigerator or to live somplace up north. Been years now so don't remember much.

 

[TK421]

I know you’ve already made your decision, but I’d eat it. 6 hrs at 55F is better than any of my duck, dove, or deer hunting and I’m extra picky about how I handle game.

 

[Geena]

Yeah, but it wasn't necessarily 6 hours. It had died sometime the night before and she was posting at 2 in the afternoon, so it could have been up to 17 hours.
As RUNuts stated some people purposely age Pheasant intact like that. So although one could eat a bird under those circumstances, it is not without some risk.
They are also assuming that it died of a broken neck, but one of the signs of botulism in poultry is a "limber neck".
But as with anything, to each his own, to me, there is plenty of other poultry available to process and eat, so I'd easily pass on any bird with an unknown cause and time of death. I've had food poisoning before and it's not fun!

 

[cottontail farm]

just for the sake of discussion, in a situation like the OP presented, what does everyone think would be the risk of just taking the breasts off of the bird without getting near the cavity?

 

[TK421]

Well, @Geena kinda changed my mind. For those not familiar with determining cause of death, this could be a risky proposition. I had assumed broken neck and had forgotten about botulism, pox, etc. I’ve eaten a broken neck dove but only when I hear and see it impact the front windows. Dead dove on the porch when I get home gets buried.

 

[cottontail farm]

This is where i'm confused and brought up the breast idea - are all of the nasties like botulism etc present in the actual meat tissue or just inside the cavity?
If you could take the breasts off cleanly and cook to a safe temperature would it be ok?

 

[TK421]

If you could take the breasts off cleanly and cook to a safe temperature would it be ok?

No. And I can’t stress that enough.some parasites or infections are localized to an organ and some are systemic. Without a pathology report you shouldn’t eat it. And thanks to my recent recall, unless you see it break it’s neck by flying into a window, don’t eat it.

 

[cottontail farm]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing, I love learning here.

 

[Pugsabi]

I wouldn't eat it but I would process it for practice since I've never processed one before.