How do I pluck a pheasant?

[Annemieke]

I have the good fortune to be given two pheasants a week this time of year. My husband has been skinning them, the lazybones. I'd like to pluck them. I gather there are two ways, wet and dry. How do they go, and is one of them better with fresh pheasants, the other with hung ones?
Thanks! Annemieke.

[boboff]

I think your husband might be right!

All plucking is easier as soon as the bird is dead.

Dry you just pull out the feathers.

Wet, you stick the birds in hot water for about a minute and the pull out the feathers.

Wet is easier, but cooks the skin a bit and does make tearing more common I found with chickens.

There are loads of google articles on the actual process.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

I always dry pluck these days. Small birds like pheasant and partridge are quite easy to dry pluck, chickens less so, but as Boboff says, the skin tears more easily if wet plucked.

[diggernotdreamer]

Don't forget to do the traditional pheasant plucking rhyme, helps keep the boredom at bay when plucking and gives you a bit of a giggle when you say it over and over

I'm not the pheasant plucker I'm the pheasant pluckers mate and I'll keep on plucking pheasants cos the pheasant pluckers late

[oldjerry]

Your Husband is right,you only really want the breasts,chuck the rest to the cat.

[Annemieke]

Oh dear Jerry, but I love all those more finnicky bits, the breast is boring! I give that to my husband ;-) (can't get the smilie). I love gnawing the bits off the bones, and the darker meat. I bet that's got more goodness in too.