This is not a problem with all game birds but some are downright fowl to cook. Let’s talk Grouse for example. We hunt Ruffed and Blue Grouse here. They are decent sized birds. About chicken sized, but when you go to cook them it smells like you through the guts in the pot and the meat in the garbage. If you can get through that smell the end result is pretty tasty but it does have a residual ‘gamey’ flavor.
I started changing how I cooked these because of this problem. If you have a similar problem with the game bird your harvesting you might give it a try. The first thing I did was bone out all the meat. Here in lies most of the problem with both the smell and the taste. Game birds are no different than any other meat, a lot of flavor comes from the bone, in this case the putrid and fowl odor and taste. We have to wait until we get home because of regulations here about keeping identifiable parts attached to the bird, but before they go to the freezer, they get de-boned. What a difference this alone makes in the atmosphere at dinner time.
The second thing I did, was I canned the bird meat. At first since step one and two were on the same batch of birds I thought it was the canning that did the trick. No, but the results of canning did make using the birds in a dish of our choice later easier than just freezing them. One advantage is that game birds are not like chicken from the store, they have led a hard life and have the toughness to prove it. By canning the birds they were tender and ready for gulosh or dumplings right out of the jar. Secondly since these can be a bit smaller than a chicken and quail are even smaller, you can wait for a full batch without fear of freezer burn.
Now I don’t hear the whining and complaining about birds for dinner. I even cooked a batch for dinner with our daughter and her friends (yeah teenage) without a single turned up nose. They had seconds too. Okay, I guess that would be a downside, sometimes a little strategic stink can be useful. Hope this is useful to you.
Happy hunting,
Brutus
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