do you have to hang a pheasant before you cook it? if you do, how long do you hang them for?

If you are buying from a store, dealer or even from the shoot, it'll have been hanging around long enough...it's only small after all. I suggest to you that before using, put it into a saucepan just big enough to squeeze it in and cover with cider or wine. Now I mean real cider ( not the fizzy apple flavoured sugar water) nor the cheapo cheap wine. Never use rubbish to marinade. A chopped onion and a desert spoon of honey should be squeezed into the pan. Make sure the meat is covered by the liquid and put into a cool place (not the refridgerator.)

OK in three days but if you leave it for two weeks (topping up the cider)it'll be better!

Take out your beast, dry with paper towels inside and out, put chopped apple and onion and sage (thyme, rosemary) into the beast, cover with strips of fatty bacon and put into a very hot oven for 15 minutes, then turn down really low for 90 minutes.

The juices you may pour into a saucepan, add two glasses of red wine, two desert spoons of blackberry, redcurrant ,cranberry or blackberry jam, two desert spoons of tomato paste, a teaspoon of English mustard, a touch of chilli sauce or chilli pepper if you will, simmer together for 15 minutes adding more red wine so it's the right thickness.

Serve with steamed sprouts, steamed peas (from frozen) or broccoli.

Potatoes, turnips and carrots can be boiled until just softening, but not cooked, then drained and put with the bird when it goes into the oven.

Do this once...it sounds complicated, but it's not...and you'll do it all your life. I could eat a pheasant twice a week, and this meal will feed four if you have a little first course (ie soup.)

If you live in Britain you can always find a shoot in the winter and if you buy direct in feather and collect you can get 20 birds for less than a pound each. The best health food at the best price!

You will never eat tortured chicken again (I havn't.)

To find the phone number of your nearest shoot phone your local branch of the NFU ie National Farmers' Union. That is in the UK.

Are you planning on cooking the whole thing like a chicken? I've never done that before. I always just skin 'em and then cut the breast out and cook that in some butter with salt. You don't need to hang anything. I guess if you want to cook it whole you could hang it for a while to make sure all the blood is out, but you could also just soak the whole thing in some salt water.

No. Some people like fresh pheasant for a less gamey flavour. As you hang a bird the meat matures and the flavour develops, so it depends on personal taste, 3-7 days in a cold place would be ok. I like mine fresh though.

The longer you hang the pheasant, the stronger its meat will taste, but also the more toxins will have developed inside the animal. For health reasons : 3 days hanging before the plumage are a reasonable maximum.

never heard of that before...are you thinking of deer? You just skin a pheasant and cut it up and put it in the frying pan! brown it and add a can of mushroom soup and let simmer til done. You can toss a few potatoes on that and have your meal ready with gravy!

No you dont have to hang pheasant. soak it in salt water solution for several hours then rinse and cook.

Don't have to but it is advised. For anything from a couple of days to a week or so

Gets a bit messy if you don't!

I don't think you do...