[whitby_sam]

We've had a cock pheasant in our field for the past few months, I've spent many hours watching him interact with the chickens and share their food.
I just found him dead, no obvious signs of struggle apart from a small clump of feathers missing from the back of his neck. I wonder if maybe one of the dogs has "almost" caught him and he's died of fright...

Anyway, the big question is can I eat him? He looks to have been in fine health, his feathers are gleaming and there are no strange smells or oozes. There's no sign of any kind of illness but also apart from the missing feathers (about the size of my thumbnail) there are no puncture wounds, no bruising and most importantly no flies!

If I do eat him it'll be tonight, I'm not going to hang him, I'll just pan-fry the breasts and make stock from the rest of the carcass before feeding it to the dogs.

Can anyone think of any reason I shouldn't give this beautiful bird the dignity of eating him?

[bamford6]

they hang them for a couple off days should be no problem cook well

[doganjo]

Hope you enjoyed him.  Probably did die of fright - not very strong nervous systems, a bit like rabbits

[whitby_sam]

Dressed him last night (with Father in law's help) and will eat him tonight. I feel better that he's providing us with a meal but I'll miss seeing him around the field.

[whitby_sam]

I panfried the breasts tonight, having cut the meat across the grain to keep it tender I fried it in olive oil, added oyster and shitake mushrooms, a shot of XO cognac, some crushed mixed peppercorns, whole pink peppercorns and half a pot of cream, left it to reduce off the heat and then served with chunky chips...

Absolutely delicious and aside from the cognac it was all either free (pheasant) or leftovers (had steak the other night and just used up what we hadn't used then)

Yum!