[Sca-cooks] Pheasants and other game birds

[SEBD at aol.com]

The conversation has been going so thick and fast
that I am not sure I have read all of it, but the
custom of hanging birds until they are "high" was
with us well into the modern period.
 
A lot of the game birds, in their wild, or unfarmed state,
are sinewy from being, as it were, free-range. So, people
would hang them until they started to rot, under the
impression that the hanging birds were thus being
tenderized. The taste was an acquired one.
 
In the case of some small birds like snipe or woodcock,
the birds were hung undrawn, which would surely
appal health inspectors today. But the intestines,
mixed with bacon, cheese, onions, and herbs, were
considered tastier even than the bird itself, which was
served on toast to catch the "trail."
 
Elianne