Canning Wild Pheasant Legs - Canned Pheasant in Wine Recipe

 Recently a friend of mine invited me on a pheasant hunting trip.  I decided I would use my great grandfather's LC Smith 16 gauge No. 2 grade double barrel shotgun.  The trip was a great success and I bagged 3 birds with the 118 year old shotgun.  I've now successfully hunted birds with my father's, grandfather's, and great grandfather's double guns, but that is a whole other story. 

 

I decided to can some of these birds, especially the tough legs.  I've previously just used the crock pot to slow cook them, but I have been doing a fair bit of canning wild game recently with great success so I figured I would try.  I found scant few resources and recipes online, but I figured it should not be that different from other game meat canning. 

I was careful to try to remove all lead shot and feathers from the meat.  I decided with a raw pack method and warmed the meat in hot water before placing the legs directly into the hot jars along with 1/2 teaspoon salt in each pint jar.  I added a little hot water to each jar due to the airspace the legs left and the lean nature of the meat, though I found out afterward it was unnecessary.  

I used a wide mouth mason for a little extra room for adding the legs.

I also cubed up the breast meat and added those similarly to small mouthed pint jars.

 

 

 

I did not add any water to the breast pieces as they should cook down and provide enough liquid via this method.  I placed the banded jars into the pressure cooker as I went.  I sealed the canner lid and after letting the headspace vent for 10 minutes, placed my weight and canned the meat at 15 pounds pressure for 75 minutes.  

 

After the canner cooled I removed the jars and placed them on a wire rack to cool.

Not wanting to waste the breast bones and little bits of meat left after I filleted the breasts, I put them into a stock pot and covered them with water.  I added some diced onion, carrots, salt and pepper, and simmered the pheasant stock in a covered pot for several hours.

Once finished I poured the stock into quart mason jars and let cool.  This will go to the refrigerator to add to future dishes I planned to make, or anything else that could use a little stock flavor.  

Here are all the products from the pheasants cooling, stock, legs, and breast. If I had more stock I could also have pressure canned that, but it will not last long so once cooled I just refrigerated.

 

 

 

My favorite Pheasant Recipe using the meat and stock produced above.

 

 Pheasant in Wine:

 Canned pheasant pieces

1 carrot

1 onion

1/2 celery Stalk

3 cups pheasant stock (or chicken)

1 cup white wine

4 tbsp. butter or bacon fat

3 tsp. basil

1 1/2 tsp. cornstarch

1 cup uncooked Jasmine rice 

Salt and Pepper to taste

 

First drain the canned pheasant meat (save the liquid for the stock addition). Remove the bones and hard cartilage from the legs. Set the meat aside. Here you can see I used both dark leg meat and a jar of white breast meat I had canned.

 

 

Dice the carrot, onion, and celery stick finely.  Saute this in the pan with the butter or bacon fat at medium heat for about 10 minutes stirring often until the onions are tender and translucent.   

 

Place the canned pheasant into the pan and add the wine.  After a few minutes of stirring add the pheasant stock and basil and simmer covered for about 5 minutes. 

 

Cook the rice in 2 cups of additional chicken/pheasant stock in a small separate pan.  I like to boil the 2 cups of stock and them add the rice and cover.  Turn off the burner and stir once or twice until all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is done.

 

 

Remove the lid to the pheasant pan and add the cornstarch and continue to simmer for a few minutes to thicken the liquid.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Once the rice is done, spoon meat and gravy mixture over the rice and serve.

This was a hit with my family, so I will continue to can future pheasant, especially the legs.