Cured Smoked Pheasant

[processhead]

I just took these two pheasants out of the brine tank where they have been curing for 3 days. Ready to go in the smoker this morning after a short drip-dry.

One of them shows some signs of being hard-mouthed by the dog. I need to have a little conversation with her about that.

Her side of the story goes like this. " If you were a better shot, I wouldn’t have to chase down these cripples and hard-mouth them"…

Yeah, she has got me there…

[YooperDog]

processhead man those look good! I had a similar conversation with my wirehaired back in the day, you can’t argue with truth.

[processhead]

Thanks. One of the pheasants rolled over on the smoker rack and has a big black blemish where it rested against the inside of the smoker. So much for that nice presentation photo I was after. lol It still tastes great on the inside, however. Just got back from pheasant hunting a few minutes ago. No birds in the bag today. The warmer weather has them acting more like wild January birds.

[lkrfletcher]

processhead

[erich52]

processhead I am going to have to give that a go. What did you use for the brine.

[processhead]

erich52 said in Cured Smoked Pheasant:

processhead I am going to have to give that a go. What did you use for the brine.

It is a very basic brine. 3 cups of Tenderquick and 2 gallons of cold water. This will work for 4-5 pheasants I use the same brine for wild turkey breast as well. I usually inject turkey breast before the soak.
Give the birds a cold water soak after you take them out of the brine to pull some of the excess salt out.

[Jonathon]

processhead Nice job! She fetched so she wins that argument!

[processhead]

Jonathon said in Cured Smoked Pheasant:

processhead Nice job! She fetched so she wins that argument!

Right you are, Jonathon. She covers my a$$ most of the time and is a great companion to boot.