Eating down the freezer here.

Before...



Dang it, Photobucket is down again.

Looks like a great start Lloyd. Is that walleye poking out from under the peppers?

It sure is James.

Sitting at DIA & headed to Cleveland today, so the rest of the photos will have wait. Found a bag of grouse (while digging for the fish) that had been harvested in 2010(!). After thawing it out and then brining it, my family and I had that bacon-wrapped for our 31st Anniversary supper last night. Tasted as good as fresh!

Always fun to get the freezer ready for Fall.

What a great scoff, Lloyd. Walleye is a wonderful fish. Properly wrapped fish and game lasts a long time.

Before I got my wife a shrink wrap machine, I froze all my fish and game in water. The surrounding ice prevented freezer burn, but some of it was better than others. Snook filets last maybe forever, while Seatrout gets ugly after a year. Turkey breasts seem to have a great freezer life...Geo

Must be the season... I was rooting around and found 8 lobsters. the last of my Mexican stash. save a kilo or so of scallops....Fire up the grill...!

I had serious qualms about those birds. Six years is a new (& regrettable!) record for us. As was mentioned above, freezing in ice really helps w/freezer burn and brining is key for making the meat moist again. It was like I'd shot them last week.

I have had excellent results freezing fully feathered, un-gutted woodcock in vacuum bags, but I usually clean and cook them within 6-9 months.

My wife puts up with a lot from me. I have a pretty good idea what her reaction would be to me shrink wrapping un-plucked, un-cleaned dead animals and sticking them in her freezer. Don't think I'll try that one...Geo

Wise decision George.

You mean you're supposed to wrap them? Does that apply to squirrels too?

Emmett Boylan

Gil,

It only takes a few seconds to draw a bird with a gut hook. Wonder if it would make a difference, the way you freeze them?

SRH

I have frozen birds whole, feathers on as well. Hunting buddy told me about it. Sounded odd until I tried it. Nice option after a long drive home.

I have too. But, never with the guts in them. Maybe I'm missing out on something?

SRH

Or not...Geo

I wanna see the pictures of the cooked fish and veggies!

I always try to gut them as soon as I can. Want to cool down that meat. But to each their own.

It's a Woodcock thing. Frenchies cook'em guts in. Gil went to France on a trip and hasn't got over it yet..Geo

No more pictures until I get home ( can't do it from my cell).

Lloyd, apologies for hijacking thread, but I'll keep the ball rolling until you get home. Until last year I always gutted birds the day of the hunt. Two years ago, I either read somewhere or was inspired through a flash of pure laziness that freezing birds intact kept them fresher by better protecting them from freezer burn. I understand the argument in favor of immediate gutting. However, bad juices from shot wounds are already in the wound channel and freezing them in place would not worsen the effect. That’s been my experience with woodcock the past two seasons. I took a pair last weekend to Floyd with some fresh chanterelles and he was amazed at the freshness of flavor of the birds. I only freeze woodcock intact but see no reason not to do other birds the same way other than the storage issue. Geo, I don’t parade dead birds in front of my wife and the frozen woodcock are kept in a cardboard box inside the freezer which keeps them out of sight and also prevents odd shape frozen objects from falling on my toes when I open the door. I appreciate some aspects of French culture, especially French guns, but cooking the birds with guts intact is not an aspect of French culture that I share. Julia was in town last week and I thawed out dove and woodcock for her smothered in fresh wild chanterelles. She Bogarted the wc and chants and I ate the dove. She raved about them. I rarely breast dove and like to cook them whole, plucked and drawn. Here’s a photo showing the relative size of each. The dove were late October and the WC, January. I flash cook the birds on high, indirect heat on the grill. With lid down, the temps exceed 500 F. The dove cook to my satisfaction in 5 minutes and the wc, 7. I rigged a vertical roaster out of a wire coat hanger which holds 4 birds. Here are two wc I cooked earlier this month. Note the color of the cooked wc’s flesh.

Just ribbing you Gil. Looks delish; especially the chants...Geo

Geo., We had an Argentine guest once when we were doing the B&B thing, who brought some ducks that he had frozen a couple of years before, with feathers and guts intact....Quite gross...Ate Ok. I guess but cleaning me them really put off the kitchen help...I did some lobsters the other nite that were about a year old, pretty good and stayed moist stay well

I kept a frozen whole bobcat in our basement freezer for a while until I could get it to the taxidermist. I lost track of how long it had been there and my wife's mother eventually told us she wouldn't eat anything at our house until that dead animal was out of the freezer. The bobcat is now happily reclining on a tree branch on my den wall.

Women can be weird, can't they? My wife once actually objected to a whole, unskinned gator tail being put into our chest type freezer. Imagine that ....

We kept it in there until the next frog leg cooking.

SRH

I was hunting woodcock several years ago, in Louisiana. At noontime the guide invited all of us to his home for some "trails." Turned out "trails" were woodcock entrails sautéed with chopped onion and spices. Argh! However, I was the only one in our group who passed on the offering.

So let me understand. You turned down eating the digested remains of earthworms? But then you do know the country of origin of Louisiana Coon Asses. Gil

Finally, the dinner after the fish dinner. Bacon wrapped grouse, wild rice and peas. A good white wine is also standard fare with this meal.



The grilling process.....

You lost me at the peas. Grilled Asparagas or grilled squash for sure but never peas.

Bacon wrapped Pheasant breast grilled along side veggie kabobs consisting of peppers, onions, and yellow squash with a fresh tomato just slightly seared served over a bed of rice pilaf for dinner last night....very tasty!

Bacon seems to be the universal solution. We'd had asparagus the night before with the fish that started all of this. Somebody wanted to see the finished product here? Here you go George. Photobucket seems to be working just fine today.




Sunday night was leftovers plus an elk roast, but there is no photographic evidence. A few leftover bacon-wrapped grouse appetizers with an elk loin, baked potatoes and asparagus again, drenched in blue cheese sauce. Red wine with that one, celebrating my safe return from my 40th high-school reunion.

You guys eat better than I do...Geo

One of my friends in college was married to a Louisiana swamp Cajun. He said they ate anything that floated after you shoot it.

I seem to remember reading that the reason woodcock entrails can be eaten is that the immediately empty themselves (shit) upon taking flight so birds taken on wing are cleaned out.

Still have no desire to try it.