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Pheasant wrapped with coppa di parma ready to go in the oven
Let me first start by saying that this post is not for the faint of heart as some of the photos are quite bloody. If you are a vegan or vegetarian probably best not to read on! If you are – however- interested in finding out how to skin a hare then please read on.. 
I was a little anxious about this lesson as we could have gotten just about anything here and my fear was of walking in and finding an entire deer lying on the kitchen counter. It wasn’t a deer, but instead we had two hare, two pheasants and two wild ducks lying there completely intact as you can see below. There was also some pieces of wild boar meat and some deermeat, but that was both already processed.
Now I like to think of myself not being too squeamish, but hmmm, not sure about all these little furry and fluffy creatures on the table as I knew what would be coming next! You see; I grew up with a friend whose parents owned a farm and as a kid I used to be at that farm almost every week. If you live at a farm you know that chickens eventually get slaughtered and since they lived close to the an area with lots of bunnies you even realize that bunnies get shot too. So I had killed and cleaned chicken before and I had even seen someone skin a bunny before. Still…. that was all different from the experience of last night! Probably a good thing too that it was the last lesson and not the first. Someone even suggested of starting with this lesson in the beginners course; you’d would – for sure – not have any people left after the course..lol..
After Rob had explained to us the differences between the various types of game we went to the kitchen area to watch the skinning and cleaning process on one of the hares. Now before I go into that; there are people opposed to hunting and people that are ok with hunting. I will not go into the right or wrong here, just to say that I used to be really against hunting but I have come to see the other side as well and are a bit more relaxed about the whole subject. I mean; if you think about it; If you are a meat-eating person your anonymous piece of meat that you buy at the butcher used to be a live animal as well and I can bet that your cow or pig probably had a lousier life than the hare you see lying in the photo above. So in terms of animal friendly (not getting into the whole pro or con hunting discussion!!) the hare would win over the average cow anyday, right?
Skinning and cleaning a hare
But still…. I had to swallow once or twice when Rob started skinning the hare and part of that was due to the horrible stench coming from the hare. Apparently real game can smell that way when it has been hanging for the appropriate amount of time to tenderize the meat. In this case the hare was shot roughly ten days ago and you probably get used to that smell but it was disgusting! The first thing he did was cut a little slit into the hare’s neck so that you can put a finger underneath the skin. Then the process of stripping the animal of it’s little furry coat is remarkably simple. Just make sure you remove the lower part of all four of the legs otherwise you won’t be able to pull of the skin. Once skinned you can remove the head, which then makes it look a lot more like something you can buy at your butcher… But overall, a pretty bloody process! Also you can see where the hare was shot as those parts have hematomas of where the coagulated blood is sitting. That is also where you will most likely find the little bullets that killed it, so make sure to remove those!
After the hare we got a demonstration of how to clean a duck (nightmare with all those feathers!) and then it was time to take it into practice… At which point I have to make a confession; I chickened out.
I am ok with watching someone dissecting a hare, duck or pheasant, but to do it myself I just didn’t feel like it! Instead I took photos and well, I did pluck a little bit of duck, but that is as far as it goes. I mean, the chance that I will ever be cleaning my own hare is not so big. Unless I am forced to live in the wild and will need to live of the animals that I catch with my bare hands; in which case the knowledge will come in handy.. lol.. In fact I was not the only one having a little bit of trouble with this lesson as only Arjen and Mike where brave enough to start on a pheasant and hare, respectively. Francoise cleaned a lot of the insides of the hare (to be used for something) which deserves an applause in itself as the stench was overwhelming but the rest of the group stayed with the safer meats that were already cleaned (the wild boar and deer)
The guys with their respective trophee...
And obviously at some point some of it had to be eaten. Now I found that the problem with the hare is the smell really. Once you have smelled that stench it stays in your nose and even after having been prepared in the oven we could all still smell it. And since taste is for a large part smell I had a hard time liking it! The boar wrapped with prosciutto was lovely and delicious, the filled boar was also great. The pheasant that Mike is holding on the left was delicious as well (that is the first photo of this post as well) and the coppa di parma really added a nice little crunch to it. The duck has a liver taste to it and I didn’t like the skin as that was thick and fat. Not so tasty, but the meat itself was ok. You wouldn’t expect a duck to have red meat now would you? But it does have red meat.
So in terms of our last lesson it certainly was a memorable one! It was the first time I did hardly anything in the kitchen though which is a little weird. Well I cut some veggies for a dish that we didn’t eat in the end, but that’s about it.
And now it is the end of our course again, such a shame really. There is still sooooo much more to learn, so I hope there will be another one after this.
Rob also gives summer courses in France where you spend a week cooking and/or doing other fun activities (painting, fishing etc.) as well. You go to the market in the morning and learn what to buy and then how to prepare all that in the afternoon. Sounds like a lot of fun and definitely something we will be doing next year. At the moment the farm where this will all be taking place is still under renovation to make it suitable to host guests but it should be finished beginning of spring next year. Courses start somewhere in june, but you can check the website for more details if you’re interested!
Pheasant with hare feet...
If you liked that post, then try these...
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Simone, I love meat, but skinning that hare is just something I hope I would never have to do!!!! Lovely pictures though!!!
WOW! What a lesson indeed. I am trying to get over my squemish-ness as I truly believe one has to be able to prepare the foodstuffs one likes, but I am a long way from skinning a hare. I am sure the stench was terrible, but french cheese smells terrible too, but it tastes so good…
Oh wow! this is fascinating! I can only imagine the aroma. You’ve done a great job with covering all of this Simone…better than a Stephen King novel. It’s a fact of life that the animals we eat do go through some sort of process to arrive on our tables all nice and edible.
These courses were fab, thank you for sharing them!
I really enjoyed the series very much
I’ve prepared a few rabbits in my life, and I must say I quite enjoy as I feel it is respectful of the animal as you know that it is a precious and life costly and you make sure you do it properly and see it through the full dish. Much better than buying reading cut meat to me from an ethical point of view: The packed meat makes life abstract…
Simone, awesome post. I find that so many people want to be ignorant to the fact that their meat comes from an ANIMAL! It’s important to know where your dinner came from so that you have an appropriate respect for the food. GREAT post. I would be a bit squeamish too!
Sorry Simone – I just couldn’t look at some of the pictures but that is because I am super squeamish… but thanks for being so honest in your post – the whole series was really great and I know we are so similar in that we love to learn! Thanks for sharing and I can’t wait for your France series!!
What a great class you took! Although this post is definitely is not for vegetarians it’s great for people like me who grew up eating game…
Simone, that class looks and sounds like it was so much, not to mention a wealth of info, although I’ve never eaten rabbit and I’m not a ‘game’ person in general – always tastes too well, ‘gamey’ lol. Regardless, great photos and write up
I really must venture to Amsterdam one of these days….lovely looking birds!
Oh poor little creatures
But it’s their own fault for being so delicious! LOL. My family bred bunnies for awhile when I was a boy, probably 6 or 7, and I witnessed how they killed, skinned, butcher and cook them. It kinda feels weird in the beginning, but then you get used to it. I bet that if they needed to, they’d the same to us. LOL.
Now that would be an interesting scene for a horror movie… bunnies getting back at the humans for being so evil to eat them..
my imagination is running wild already!
That’s quite a lesson. I’ll never whine about cutting up a chicken again. This is what WHOLE FOOD is all about!
I am just reading your post by not looking at the pictures. Had tried hare meat before and that’s the only once.
BTW, To show my appreciation for your support, please pick the Award from my place.
A georgous post this is!!!
I love game but I don’t clean it!! I let the butcher do it! I love wild duck, rabbit, goose, dear,… MMMMMMMMMM!!
Georgous pictures too!
I’m not a vegetarian by any means, but… I’m sorry, I couldn’t bring myself to look at the pictures! You have to understand, Q-Tip (my pet rabbit) is right next to me! I’ve eaten rabbit before, and liked it, but it just feels a little weird when I have one as a pet. I guess it’s a little hypocritical of me… Oh, but I’m totally fine with other people eating hare, no problem! I probably will eat it again myself, some day…
Anyways, this sounds like such a hardcore cooking class! You must have learnt so much!
Oooo poor Q-tip!! I hope he wasn’t looking at the photos too… I do understand how you feel though; I’ve always had that with horsemeat (I used to do horsebackriding years ago) I can simply not bring myself to eat it..
But it was an interesting class for sure!
Wow. Am I ever proud of you! I don’t think many people, including me, could do that! And the end product looks wonderful.
This post had me snorting with laughter! Too funny, but I can see where a sense of humor would come in handy. And I would stand behind my camera, too, and let the others peel the skin off the poor animals. I guess you had to go through the process if you wanted to cook and eat that fabulous dish! Looks scrumptious!
Oh, I love game, but rarely get to eat any… Great job and wonderful end products!
Cheers,
Rosa
I always thought that bunnies are too cute to eat.
I was scrolling down and making the exact same face as that guy in your photo
O haha… well, you should have seen my face during the entire class!! Not much better!
I’ve seen chickens, rabbits, and fish all prepped for cooking, but I’ve never done the dirty work myself. It definitely makes you appreciate the animal and not want to waste any of it. So true about how a smell can stay in your memory like that. Must have been a very informative class!
Simone, thanks for this post. I love what Christelle said about how preparing an animal from start to finish makes you respect the fact that some creature died so that you could have meat. It’s not easy to see, but IMHO it’s important to see if we’re going to eat meat. What a wonderful class you had!
Thanks for your message on my blog. It meant a lot.
Cool class. Having seen animals slaughtered before I am not too squeamish, although it’s one thing to see it done and another to have to do it yourself. I am curious though about the hare hanging for ten days to tenderize the meat. Surely there must be another way other than letting it ‘rot’?
I am not sure if there is another way to tenderize meat but hanging meat and aging it, is considered the best method as you basically let nature do it’ thing. You can eat hare when the meat is ‘younger’ but true game lovers would consider that not as good as letting the meat age for the proper amount of time. The same thing happens to beef for instance…
A good post. I think one respects the animal and all its parts when one slaughters and butchers their own meat.
People, the meat we eat doesn’t come all neat & packaged at the supermarket. This is bare knuckles food. Embrace it, respect the animal and be thankful for the food on the table and the animal that gave its life to you.
Great post! very informative! I used to see goats getting skinned every sunday when we’d go for a picnic in the mountains in Lebanon, and frankly I was not too keen on learning how but this is important and thanks for showing it.
I couldn’t agree more with Peter. And I think we all should learn how to butcher our own food. You never know when you are going to need that skill…
I do agree with Peter, but I have to be honest, whenever we have game to butcher in the house, I hide in my room
Simone, this cooking class seems wonderful except the skinning hare session. I might as well change hare to chicken, just can’t bring myself go through it….
Btw, love the salmon en croute, so happy you are hosting. And lots of wonderful pictures of yours too, love them all!
Regards
Kris
After seeing those pictures, I don’t think I’ll be able to EAT again!
Dear Simone,
I just posted about your award that you gave to me,..come over to read it!
Nope, I couldn’t do it. You captured the essence of it though and I give it to you for that. I have these cute bunnies that live in my bushes….
Oh my! What a work! I don’t know if I could make it…. as much as I don’t mind cutting a whole chicken in 8 pieces, as much as I don’t like to touche a turkey of 20 pounds…. and they don’t have their skin on…
OMG I love my meat but not with fur and feathers attached!
My vegetarina boyfreind would die seeing this post…I,ll keep it away from him. I love game but this is a new light to see it under. but very fascinating. Your picture with all the game before…looks like thos still lives paintings from the 17th century