Cooking Quail

Big fat quail often kill themselves by flying into our (closed) windows. Last time I plucked and roasted the bird, but it turned out a little stringy and dry.

What's the best way to prepare a quail? Do I have to hang it from the rafters for 47 days, or perform some voodoo bloodletting?

[nearly50]

Have it debate Lloyd Benson. That'll cook it.

[charlie]

My grandmother used to fry them like chicken ...... and made
red-eye gravy and biscuits to go with them ..... yum.* Had to
be careful of the bird shot however.

Cheers,

Charlie*

[laurence]

Get one of those N'oleans style deep fryers, I bet that will do the trick!

[azanon]

Quote:

My grandmother used to fry them like chicken ......

maybe this explains why game meat "tastes like chicken"; folks are cooking it like chicken.

/shrug

[saluki9]

Here's a trick from a quail hunter

clean the birds

soak them for several hours in a red wine of your choice. Generally Merlot and Cab work the best

wrap them in some good bacon slices (keeps them moist)

Grill and enjoy

[laurence]

Quote:

Originally Posted by saluki9 Here's a trick from a quail hunter clean the birds soak them for several hours in a red wine of your choice. Generally Merlot and Cab work the best wrap them in some good bacon slices (keeps them moist) Grill and enjoy

mmmmm, that sounds excellent! Would this method work with more domestic cuts?

Quote:

Would this method work with more domestic cuts?

Yes, but you have to shoot them or throw them against your window first.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

If you can revive them and get them to hit the window twice, they should be further tenderized.

Game birds either need to be cooked fast (as in deep frying recommended above) or slowly, as in smoking or in another slow cooking process.

Ny neighbor brings home game birds all the time and was disappointed in how they came out...tough and stringy...sound familiar?

I lend him my turkey fryer or my electric smoker now and he's a lot happier with the results.

If you want to try the slow way on a budget (although an electric smoker is cheap, easy to use, and a nice thing to have if you're going to do more of your own cooking in ER):

Brine the birds in ~1 gallon of water mixed with ~1/3 cup of salt and 1/3 cup of a sugar item like brown sugar or honey. White sugar is ok but its a good opportunity to sneak some more flavor into them. Roughly 1 hour of brining time in the fridge per pound of bird, minimum 2 hours, maximum of 8 for a bigger turkey. The brining process puts flavor in the bird and increases the moisture content so it can take the long slow cooking without drying out.

Drain and pat dry. You may cut in half to speed smoking time and make handling the bigger birds easier to do.

Put in a hot electric smoker with packets of wet chips or a tray of dry sawdust from untreated wood. For birds I'd recommend apple, cherry, alder or some other fruit-wood. You're looking at ~6 hours for a chicken-sized bird, probably 2.5-4.5 for a smaller quail size. Check every 2 hours for a loosened thigh joint.

If you dont have an electric smoker, you can get reasonable results with any of the following:

- charcoal weber type grill with six briquettes with a pan of fine chip or dust on top of them, adding another 4-6 new coals as the old ones hit their last legs
- gas grill with one burner on low with the wood sitting on top of it
- Cardboard box turned over a hotplate with a cast iron pan full of sawdust on it, with a few sticks or dowels poked through the sides of the cardboard to support a metal rack that your meat is on - the yard sale special version of a smoking box!

See: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show...245800,00.html

[laurence]

So when is my family invited over for dinner? I want a few shots of your citrus vodka surprise, too!

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Anytime! We have 'family day' on sundays, everyones invited. I usually get 5-10 people crash landing onto my patio around 1pm every week...however I'm fresh out of limoncello as my father in law finished off the last few shots. Been thinking about making some grapefruit version...

Thanks for the tips.

I have a smoker, but I'm not sure it's going to be worth the effort for one little bird.*

I'm currently considering just throwing it in the slow cooker with some sauce.

When these things hit the windows it sounds like someone threw a football at the house. It took me a few years to figure out what these random bangs were.

BTW, here's the last one I ate:

[cute fuzzy bunny]

put up a poster of a really, really sexy female quail in your window so you get 10 of them a day...

of course you'd put more than the quail in the smoker...get yerself some nice trout, a piece of salmon, some duck legs, a nice piece of brisket...

[haha]

Trombone, you set a nice plate.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Come here, black chicken!!

[P.S.]

Had quail grilled at bar-b-q's and vietnamese restaurants. Mmmmm, good.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Hey Al, saw a show on the tv food channel last night. Guy was stuffing quail with cooked chopped sweet italian sausage, wrapping them in thick bacon and grilling them for about 30 minutes on low. Said the sausage and bacon helped keep the quail moist and tender during the longer cooking.

His line was "when the bacons done, the bird is too". It looked pretty crispy.

Sounds like a plan, thanks. I'll eat anything that's filled with bacon and sausage, but I guess I should wait until after the cholesterol screening.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Yep. My doctor on my last test said "dont eat any big hunks of red meat for a week before you take the test, or it'll be all screwed up!". I'm going home thinking 'uhh...but dont we want to know what it is when i'm eating my regular diet?'.

Hope it turns out; i may try this with a couple of little cornish hens sometime. Looked killer.

The really good part is I almost started the thread with "Hey Al, I was thinking about you late last night when..."...good thing I rewrote that.