Wild Birds Smoked for TX

And I say, Oh Yeah! It's good to be me!

Last week-end, all you faithful blog followers recall, Michael cleaned out his freezer.  At that time, I brined a turkey breast, a pheasant, and 10 ducks.  They have been in the solution for 5 days.  Some of you may say, "That's too long."  And, for smaller bits, you may be right.  But I did not use all that much salt.  I did add pepper flakes and cayenne to the mix though.

Tonight, I fired up the smoker with apple wood.  I put the turkey and pheasant on the upper rack and the ducks on the lower rack.  I wanted the duck fat to NOT drip on the turkey and pheasant.  Well, what little of it there was.

I pulled the smaller bits off after an hour.  You could taste the salt in them.  The pheasant was perfect - no salty flavor at all.  I have not yet tried a duck.

BTW, I smoked the duck to 140 F, the pheasant to 150 F and the turkey to 160 F.  All done at 225 F smoker temperature.  Low and slow boys, low and slow.

And I read an article online from an editor of a hunting magazine that said - every half hour, pull the meat out and spread Maple Syrup over the birds as it gives the smoke something to adhere to.  That sounded pretty delicious to me.  So every 1/2 hour I pulled the door and spread on the syrup.  I know, if you're looking, you ain't cooking.  Got it.  I figured the end result would be worth a little more time in the smoker.  And I was right.

The only way it could have been better is if I put BACON on them with the Maple Syrup.

Anyhows, the plan is to freeze these birds now and take them to Texas with us on our annual prairie dog hunt.  Man are we going to be eating good!

Following are some pictures:

The smoker getting going tonight.

The Beer Fridge - Locked and Loaded!  From L to R:
Warsteiner Dunkle, Longboard Lager, Sun King WeeMac, Sun King Cream Ale,
Landshark, Shiner Bock, and Leinkugle's Summer Wheat
You won't see any Reindeer Slobber.  Gotta go to Montezuma to get that.

Opening up to put more Maple Syrup on the birds.
Note temperature probe in turkey breast - exiting on the left hand side.
Hand-held thermometer in duck breast on top rack.
Pheasants have already been pulled and taste-tested.  YUM!

I also learned that the lower in the smoker you go (closer to the heat) the quicker you get cooked.  Makes sense, eh?  Gotta go pull some more birds and taste-test me a duck! 

Don't hate the player......hate the game.....go shoot you some birds and do the same.....



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