by Brandon Rapp
Somewhere stored in your deep freeze with an address near the bulk bought burger patties and that old piece of wedding cake could be some birds that you may or may not have forgotten about. We’ll say for the purposes of this article that these birds were strategically stored and carefully planned for later culinary execution because there’s no way you would ever have forgotten about them.
The situation could also be like when you save a certain bottle of wine or some quality cigars for a special occasion, maybe you also squirreled away a few grouse or woodcock for when the mood strikes. Times when your hunting partners visit or when you want to level up a holiday meal or a special summer gathering.
Either way, it’s now spring and, as the buds blossom, you find yourself with some hard-earned ingredients you definitely don’t want to waste; however, may not be exactly sure how to restore this protein on pause compared to when you prepare a bird you just harvested yesterday. Here’s some guidance on handling frozen game meat, the science behind it and some tips on bringing your birds back from a deep freeze slumber.
What happens to meat in the freezer?
We freeze meat and other food items obviously as a means of preservation by delaying production of bacteria and the natural process of organic matter breaking down to be returned to the food cycle. In the not-so-distant past before modern refrigeration and freezers, the preferred method of meat preservation was smoking, which is still delicious, still works and is the subject for another article.
The temperatures that achieve freezing preserve the meat by severely slowing the movement of molecules and creating a habitat that’s unsuitable for microorganisms to multiply.
The “danger zone” of temperature taught to food professionals is 40 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. This window of temperature is perfect for bacteria to thrive and live their best life, which will make you and others very, very sick should you ingest food that has the time and temperature to produce such bacteria. That’s why Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines will instruct you to cook certain meats and other food items to a recommended internal temperature as measured with a digital thermometer.
If properly prepared and wrapped, your birds should stay in excellent condition for months – if not longer. A condition we all dread with any wild game or fish is the scenario where you’re making room while prepping dinner or cleaning your freezer out to find filets and packages that look more like a popsicle than protein.
The dreaded scenario of freezer burn is enough to keep any bird hunter from leaving a game bird in the freezer for longer than a few weeks to avoid becoming another frost-bitten casualty. Freezer burn is a condition where oxygen was able to come into contact with meat stored in a freezer, dehydrate it and render the area affected with an unpleasant color, flavor and texture.
While it’s been documented that the meat is still safe to eat, most would agree it is not very palatable anymore. So, if there’s one take away when freezing meat for later consumption, it’s that air is the enemy.
What’s the best way to store birds in the freezer?
Since we’ve established that air is our enemy, what, then, is the best way to seal our birds from a frostbitten fate and not feel like lazy hunters unappreciative of our wild gifts?
The internet (surprise, surprise) is full of home remedies and techniques for keeping your birds frozen, freezer burn free and fresh as the day you shot it. Methods range from several layers of food safe sealants to completely dunking the bird upside down in an old milk container and filling it with water resulting in a large gallinaceous ice cube.
No judgement if you’re putting this in practice and are cooking safe and enjoyable meals; however, the first step regardless of your chosen method is to clean your birds and get them in a cool setting (refrigerator at home, cooler with ice if you’re traveling) preferably within an hour or two of the hunt. From there, you can pluck and/or skin the birds as you prefer.
Vacuum sealing is probably the best way to neatly prepare and be confident you have as much air out of the packaging as possible to keep the bird fresh while in the freezer. Vacuum sealers are on the expensive side for many hunters and it does also cost some storage space and maintenance.
Aluminum foil or wax paper alone will be good, but has a high probability of exposing the meat to air through the paper coming undone or holes be poked in the paper while being moved around in the freezer.
A combination of foil, freezer paper (a stronger version of waxed butcher paper) and gallon size freezer bags or plastic wrap most would agree is the best, easiest and most economical technique for storing your birds. You could fit one or maybe two pheasants, two to three grouse and three or more woodcock, depending on the size of the birds, in a single gallon freezer bag using this method. Just be sure to squeeze any excess air out before placing into the freezer.
What‘s the best way to thaw frozen birds?
Months have gone by since your studious autumnal freezer preparation and you’re now ready to break those birds out for a beautiful springtime meal at home or a taste of fall at your spring turkey camp. What’s the best way to thaw your fall game birds after four to six months (or possibly longer) in the deep freeze?
The best option taught to food professionals is to put the meat in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours. I like to use cheap hotel pans or sheet trays with or without a cooling rack you can buy at any restaurant supply store or website. Always remember to try and store the thawing meat towards the bottom of the refrigerator to avoid having any uncooked fluid from the raw meat fall down onto other ingredients in your refrigerator.
There are plenty of hunters in person and on the internet who will tell you to pull the frozen bird out of the freezer the night before you’d like to eat it and just leave it in your sink. While this may work for some, the problem with this tactic is the lack of temperature control. A properly working refrigerator should keep a constant, and more importantly safe temperature, where your frozen bird will thaw without a high risk of bacterial growth.
The old timer telling you they do the sink method every time usually follows it up with a story about how they forgot about the bird in their sink and had a horrific mess to clean up three days later. Use the fridge and play it safe.
What if you want to eat the bird in less than 24 hours?
It happens. You’re in a rush and you want to thaw some birds for tonight’s dinner. It might be the morning of or even less than a few hours until dinner. Here are some tips.
Professional cooks in this scenario will put the frozen meat in a container under a faucet with a slow steady stream of cold water. While the water is cold, it’s still not as cold as the frozen meat, which will slowly work to become the same temperature as the water. The process should take 20 to 60 minutes, depending on how much meat you’re trying to thaw. The running water keeps cycling fresh water in and potentially bacteria-ridden water out of the container, resulting in a safer process.
Why cold water and not warm or hot? If you use warm or hot water, you’re now giving up control of time and temperature. Warmer water will act like a defrosting setting in your microwave, which can actually start to cook parts of the meat before other parts, resulting in a lower quality cut and making it potentially unsafe to eat.
Can’t I just throw some birds in the slow cooker?
Modern cooking tools have elevated the home cook’s abilities, which for the most part is a good thing. Like any tool though, it’s only as good as you know how to use it. Here’s a quick rundown of modern tools that could help you in your wild game dinner quest.
Slow cooker – No. Here again is the push and pull of time and temperature. Your frozen birds are going to take too long in a bacterial bath to get to – and stay at – a safe cooking temperature in time for dinner no matter what your friend “who does it all the time” tells you. This will also contaminate any other vegetables or ingredients you put in with the meat. If you’re using a slow cooker, thaw the meat ahead of time.
Air fryer – Possibly. All food science will always tell you to properly thaw before cooking any protein. There’s some evidence that you can cook your frozen birds in an air fryer. The temperature, time and air circulation will allow it to become safe for consumption in a safe amount of time. The outside of the meat could become overcooked before the inside is at a safe temperature for consumption so take that into consideration as your final product’s quality could suffer.
Sous vide – Yes. If you don’t know, sous vide is a method of cooking where an ingredient, usually a protein, is placed in a very controlled set temperature water bath and cooked for a set amount of time with a specialized heating source. It’s a method that uses a low temperature over a long time.
The sous vide method usually requires the protein be packaged in a vacuum-sealed bag before cooking, and cooking frozen meat would take longer. This can be a good preparation for pre-cooking the protein to a safe temperature and bringing it out of the deep freeze, thawed under cold running water and ready for dinner in less time than it could normally take.
Can you thaw and re-freeze?
A common question among home cooks and those looking to not waste wild game is can you re-freeze meat you properly thawed – and is still good?
From a food safety perspective, yes, you can thaw and re-freeze frozen meat if it’s kept in a temperature-controlled environment like a refrigerator and is still safe to consume. The aspect of quality comes under question when the cell walls in the meat are broken down and deteriorated by the water freezing, thawing and re-freezing.
You can also freeze cooked meat that is leftover or previously prepared for later meals.
Depending on the quality and situation, how should I prepare these birds for the table?
It’s hard to beat a freshly downed bird in the fall and roasting it to perfection with some seasonable vegetables. While a bird in the deep freeze can be very close in quality and texture, all roads don’t always lead to the roasting pan.
Cooking methods like confit, braising and even turning your birds into a wild game sausage can be great nontraditional tactics and techniques for meat that’s been altered by the freezing process.
A great two for one recipe is confit. This is a traditional French cooking technique where your protein is slowly cooked in fat with other seasonings and aromatics that will infuse their flavors into your final product. After cooking, the meat will be encased in the cooking fat, restricting access of oxygen, which serves as a method of meat preservation for a time.
The meat can be taken out of the fat and seared in a hot pan for serving or turned into a delicious meat spread called a rillette.
A rillette is perfect as an appetizer on crusty bread or crackers for guests, or in a sandwich with your favorite cheese. You’ll need a sturdy bread or cracker to stand up to the application of a rillette as you enjoy a bite any time of year in your home, on the tailgate or at work.
Whether you’re making room in your freezer for more game meat or just lost a few birds behind a winter’s worth of grocery store stops, don’t feel like you’ve wasted those hard-earned wild protein gifts. Store your birds right and bring them back to as close to the original quality they had when you got them because that’s part of why we hunt – and that’s what the birds deserve.
Rillette recipe:
A quick pro tip to start your prep for your rillette is to brine your cleaned and plucked or skinned birds for eight to 12 hours in a salt brine mixture of Kosher salt and water, one tablespoon per cup of water. So, for a quart of water, it would be four tablespoons. This will help to draw out any coagulated blood or other unpleasant flavors while also seasoning the meat, and will usually allow you to avoid having to add salt during the cooking process.
Cooking the meat in duck fat will take a good amount of time for a rillette – three hours or more in most cases. You want to have the fat warm enough for the meat to cook, but keep it low and slow just like a good BBQ or smoker recipe here.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds upland bird meat pulled from the bone, adjust recipe if you have less or more birds to prepare
- 1 tablespoon dried thyme, poultry seasoning or herbs de Provence
- 1 cup duck fat (you can find this at most grocery stores). You may need more than one cup to cover the meat. You can add melted butter if you don’t have enough duck fat.
- 1/2 cup white or yellow onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, sliced
- 1 bay leaf bruised or torn in half
Instructions
- Place thawed birds in a salt brine for eight to 12 hours.
- Gently rinse the birds and cut them into parts (legs, thighs and breasts) before placing them into the cooking pot. (You can cook your birds in water or stock for a few hours if you don’t want to cook them in duck fat).
- Add your onion, herbs and garlic along with your duck fat and set the burner to its lowest setting, the slow cooker to low or the oven to around 225 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Slowly cook for around two to three hours or until the meat easily separates from the bone. Carefully remove the meat from the pot and set aside on a plate or tray to cool.
- When cool enough to do so, strain your cooking fat and put into a glass jar or porcelain container (no plastic) for later use. The remaining garlic and onion can be added to the meat mixture, but remove the bay leaf and discard.
- When the meat is cool enough to do so, separate it from the bone and set it in a mixing bowl. If you have a stand mixer great, if not, use a wooden spatula or spoon to mix the meat, adding a little fat to the meat as needed until you have a final product that seems spreadable. I find the game meat is easier to work with when still a little warm so I won’t let it cool overnight in the refrigerator.
- Some like their rillette with a few tablespoons of brandy or bourbon and Dijon mustard. If so desired, add it to the mixture at this point and mix with the meat.
- Place the mixture into small jars or ramakins for storage, press the meat down to remove pockets of air and leave a little room at the top to add some duck fat to cap the mixture.
- Store for up to a week in the refrigerator or you can freeze for up to six months.
Brandon Rapp is a reporter, hunter and conservationist living in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He has contributed stories to “Mouthful of Feathers,” the BHA “Backcountry Journal,” Mossy Oak and Free Range American. As a follower of bird dogs and student of wild game cooking, he spends as much time outside as his schedule will allow.
