Whats the best way to remove shot from a game bird while you e cleaning it?
I’m lucky enough to live in an area with exceptional upland bird populations – pheasants, partridge and grouse – so I have a lot of experience with removing shot. It can be tedious and it’s hard to get it all, but especially if you serve bird meat to kids or folks with brittle teeth, it’s worth spending time to methodically get the lead out. One tip an old-timer told me works well. If you’re going to fillet the breast meat to make fajita meat or fried strips, take each slice and hold it up to a bright light. This is like candling eggs – the light will glow through the meat and show you any pellets, feathers or chunks of bone, which can then be easily removed. It’s harder to do this with thigh meat. Instead, I stew this meat, which generally has lots of tendons and connective sinew. It will literally fall off the bone after about an hour of simmering and then you can go through this cooked meat and remove any pellets. If you don’t think there was much shot in the meat, save the water fo
