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By Root 969 0

Venison, bison, rabbit, alligator, duck, pheasant, and quail are all farm raised, an agriculture that breeds animals to be close to their wild roots, fed on the kinds of foods found in the wild, and given a maximum of exercise, all within confines that permit the producer to control the quality of the finished product. Farm-raised game meats are more consistent than their wild counterparts, and can be raised to have particular culinary qualities, but they will never develop the depth of flavor of an animal that runs free.

You can substitute wild meats in recipes designed for their domestic brethren by marinating or brining, shortening the cooking time to compensate for the lack of fat, and lowering the temperature to help the meat tenderize.

The following chart lists the most commonly available game meats, their choicest cuts, and how to grill them.

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GAME AND SPECIALTY MEATS FOR GRILLING

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B. Mastering Poultry

Chickens are odd birds. Their puny wings have no more chance to lift their girth in prolonged flight than a human’s arms do. Their legs are those of a sumo wrestler, and their Mae West breasts are better suited to take to a sauce than the skies. Bred away from their ornithological roots, chickens, turkeys, and geese are now primarily culinary animals.

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Commercial poultry is raised to develop at lightning speed on minimum feed. Currently it takes only 8 pounds of feed to grow a chicken to 4 pounds in just 6 weeks—a supreme feat of animal husbandry that results in meat that is remarkably consistent and inevitably bland, due to the fact that the animals spend their brief lives packed into cages where they get hardly any exercise. When you add in the fact that poultry raised under these conditions must be pumped with antibiotics to keep its meat wholesome, it’s easy to understand the groundswell of popularity for free-range poultry. Although the term brings forth images of chickens and turkeys gamboling through fields, “free-range” technically means only that the birds have access to an open pen for a few hours a day. Unfortunately, most chickens and turkeys, being hopeless underachievers, fail to take advantage of this opportunity.

All poultry is inspected by the USDA to ensure that it is free of disease and safe for consumption. Inspected poultry is wholesome, but it is not sterile. It still contains bacteria that can cause illness, and so the USDA requires that all poultry be labeled with safe-handling procedures, which include storage methods (refrigerated or frozen), thawing directions (refrigerator or microwave), cleaning advice (sterilizing work surfaces after preparation), cooking process (minimum temperature of 170°F), and how to store leftovers (refrigeration).

Unlike meats, where only the best carcasses are graded for quality, almost all poultry sold in the United States is graded. Grading is voluntary, but most poultry companies opt in, and practically all of the poultry sold—including whole birds and parts—is graded “A.” It indicates that the bird has rounded, heavy muscles, a layer of fat under the skin, and is free of unsightly defects, like rips in the skin, broken bones, and surface discoloration.

Poultry is classified by species (chickens, turkeys, duck, etc.) and then divided into classes based on the characteristics of their meat, which is determined mostly by the age and sex of the bird. The classes of poultry for grilling are described in the following chart.

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CLASSES OF POULTRY FOR GRILLING

01. Poultry Cuts

Poultry can be sold whole, halved, or cut into parts. The parts can be sold individually by the pound, or the separate parts of a single bird can be packaged together. In that case all of the parts must come from the same bird; if they don’t, it should be noted on the label. Chickens and turkeys can be divided into five-, six-, or eight-part cuts. Ducks and geese are most often sold whole, or the breast is sold alone.

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POULTRY PARTS

1. Five-Part Cut

a. Wing

b. Full breast

c. Full leg

2. Six-Part Cut

a. Wing

b. Breast