# Hunting > Game Cooking and Recipes >  Peacock

## Chelsea

We have a tonne of peacocks down the back of the farm. They are breeding like crazy. Some old guy told us you can eat them and that their pretty good. 
I asked on a cooking group and got crucified about it. But seriously has anyone cooked and eaten peacock? Im not going out of my way to do it but would like to know if it can be done and how best to cook it. Im a pretty good cook so open to trying everything.

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## bigbear

I've been told you can breast them and winter months are better for harvesting them?

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## Sideshow

Yes I've eaten them, there ok. Just breast them out give them a  singe in the pan with olive oil to seal in the flavour then 12 mins in the oven at 220.
Oh and if you can get them to fly they are good sport. Oh don't gut and pluck :Sick:  it's really bad :Sick:

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## gonetropo

ok, but tend to be a bit on the dry side, best to put a few knobs of garlic butter under the skin, wrap the meat up in fatty bacon then roast

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## duckdog

Easy to shoot and good eating. 
Just take the breasts off and cook like pheasant (don't let them dry out)

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## oneshot

Just a giant blue chicken I don't know why some people would have a bleat about it, let us know what they are like.

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## Marty Henry

Before turkeys were introduced to europe the most common big bird eaten was peacock. Treat them the same way as wild turkey. As duckdog said they do tend to be dry so butter, cream, bacon are your friends. I reckon they have much more flavour than turkey.

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## Chelsea

Thanks for the advice guys, just wondering are they only good being done in winter?

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## bigbear

same months as turkeys i was told.  Also was told they are not bad as sausages but if you add enough sauce any sausages taste good.
Got a few running around at work they're pretty cunning know how to go to ground. Get the old one camping up with the turkeys.

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## 2Quack

Yeah if they’re eating crickets in summer they’ll be pretty rank same as turkeys

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## gonetropo

yup, nothing is as bad as cricket......ohhh you mean the insect  :Have A Nice Day:

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## Moa Hunter

Any dry fleshed game birds are best cooked in oven bags. The slight pressure inside a tied bag forces moisture in rather than letting it boil out of the meat. Don't tie the bag tight enough to be totally sealed or it may split. The only problem with cooking in a bag is that there is no colour on the bird. To get around this roll the bird around in a hot frypan with some clarified butter an oil to colour up first. With Breast fillets pluck before breasting then place them skin side down in the pan to colour them before oven bag cooking. As a reference, a duck needs three hours in a bag at 140 /50 with an apple up his bum.

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## johnd

They can live to be 20 plus so try a young one first, as has been said treat it like a pheasant,  legs are good too ( the thigh bit ).

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## Friwi

Hens are better than male to eat I have been told.

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## Tommy

> Attachment 96986


Nice dog!  :Wink:

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## Sideshow

Pea Hen :Thumbsup:

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## keneff

> Yes I've eaten them, there ok. Just breast them out give them a  singe in the pan with olive oil to seal in the flavour then 12 mins in the oven at 220.
> Oh and if you can get them to fly they are good sport. Oh don't gut and pluck it's really bad


Neighbour in Oz had some. Bastards used to land on our roof and squawk and shit.... till I started shooting them. They taste alright, but as @Sideshow said, don't gut and pluck them. They are like Eugenie Sage- full of shit. And it pongs. Funny, they went extinct around our area.

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## Sideshow

God I hope she doesn’t land on my roof and start any oh that carry on  :Thumbsup:

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## 300CALMAN

I tried cooking one once, must have been cricket month It tasted like shit.

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## scotty

> Any dry fleshed game birds are best cooked in oven bags.


many years ago when i worked in a huge commercial bread bakery   we would take our wild turkey in , wrap them i dough and bake them slowly with the bread. the dough sealed in the juices .... fresh bread and tender moist turkey.....yummy

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## Moutere

> Before turkeys were introduced to europe the most common big bird eaten was peacock.


I'd say that was Goose/Geese.

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## Marty Henry

Should have said upland bird then I guess

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## Bill999

they are great if you use them in a Chicken lasagna recipie
the juicyness of it overcomes any tendency to go dry refer to your (or ya mums) edmonds cookbook

also if you shoot them in the months without the letter R in them ie. may june july august. The eating quality will be a lot better
if you know what they are eating you can eat them year round but I think crikets give them a taste that is less nice than the other months

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## Gapped axe

The breasts are excellent eating. King of the Pheasant family.

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## Moa Hunter

> The breasts are excellent eating. King of the Pheasant family.


Quite true, just big pheasants. Perhaps that's the reason for the 'don't pluck warnings' ergo I'm not the pheasant plucker etc...
Anyway I have eaten plenty of the domestic roof shitting models and they were great roasted in the way I earlier posted.

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## Steve123

Breast them then slice crossways into small steaks/medallions. Sear hot and fast and they taste awesome.

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## charliehorse

Is there any more advice on these since the last post? @Chelsea
I'm going to bang a few over tomorrow and be a shame to waste them. I'm not interested in Eugenie Sage so I'll just whip the breasts out

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## Allgood

Skin and take the breast meat off. Slice it thinly and sear in a hot pan.......put to one side along with the scrapings from the pan. Fry some Thai green curry paste in oil in the same pan for 3-5 mins, add the slices of peacock breast and pour a can of coconut cream in and add half a teaspoon of crushed ginger. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add some green beans and a couple of sprigs of coriander, simmer for another 5 mins. Serve over rice. A glass of your favorite white wine well chilled will add to the experience.........

If you dont like coriander, leave it out.......

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## gonetropo

tastes ok, bit dry though
somewhere between tuatara and yellow eye penguin  :Thumbsup:

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## charliehorse

> tastes ok, bit dry though
> somewhere between tuatara and yellow eye penguin


So.....ball park Kereru?

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## stickle7

Hi, if you have some tail feathers, or a skin I would be interested for tying trout flies, best of luck

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## MSL

> So.....ball park Kereru?


Kereru done right is far from dry


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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## Pauli

> Skin and take the breast meat off. Slice it thinly and sear in a hot pan.......put to one side along with the scrapings from the pan. Fry some Thai green curry paste in oil in the same pan for 3-5 mins, add the slices of peacock breast and pour a can of coconut cream in and add half a teaspoon of crushed ginger. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add some green beans and a couple of sprigs of coriander, simmer for another 5 mins. Serve over rice. A glass of your favorite white wine well chilled will add to the experience.........
> 
> If you dont like coriander, leave it out.......


I am going to try this recipe sometime soon. I've been culling a few in the past couple of weekends on the whanau farm. Hens go to a local to distribute, cocks I've gifted to a couple of local weavers.







Sako .222 + 50gr HDY SP

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## Lucky

Beautiful birds and rifle , the fly tiers amoung us love the thin black feathers that come of the stem of the main tail feathers , it’s called peacock hurl it’s wonderful stuff .

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## Chelsea

Been a while since iv been on here, never tried it in the end. They decided to vanish on me and iv since moved to a new farm. I wouldn’t mind one mounted though so I’m going to have to get my hands on one at some stage.

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## Kiwi Sapper

> ..................I'm going to bang a few over tomorrow and be a shame to waste them. I'm not interested in Eugenie Sage so I'll just whip the breasts out


Thank God that she doesn't..................Shudder!

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## Bill999

If you are going to fry them cut across the breast to keep the muscle fibres short or they curl up when cooking
Find where they sleep and head shoot with a 22
Daytime you just educate them

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## Pauli

> If you are going to fry them cut across the breast to keep the muscle fibres short or they curl up when cooking
> Find where they sleep and head shoot with a 22
> Daytime you just educate them


Yes indeed! Very cunning with eyesight as keen as a pheasant.

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## Steve123

> Yes indeed! Very cunning with eyesight as keen as a pheasant.


Deceptively fast movers as well. Taste great though.

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## charliehorse

Typically they were no where to be seen when we had gun in hand, smacked a nice young bird over on the edge of the scrub, was all we saw, whipped her breasts and a thigh out. Vac packed in the fridge until I decide on my preferred method of cooking

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## omark

> Hens are better than male to eat I have been told.


had a mid winter work doo once where we were to provide the turkeys off the back of a farm in the Kaimais. Came back with just 1 turkey but 6 pea hens (they were large white birds). there used to be quite a few of them around the Whaka area. Plucked them & cooked them with the turkey and nobody noticed the difference. Quite nice if I recall but we harvested them in the winter when there were no crickets about

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## Pauli

Tasty. Will age breasts longer next time. Used recipe my son gave me (ex-army cook). He did a stint in East Timor where locals taught him how to cook a 'proper' curry.

Saute 1 onion and 1 carrot with 3 tsp green curry paste
Add a little water and fish sauce to make a paste
Add thinly sliced peahen/peacock breast (cut across the grain) and cook until white
Add chopped potato or kumara (I used 1 golden kumara)
Add water or chicken stock to cover potatoes/kumara and meat and simmer
Add Thai basil and chopped coriander (and maybe 2 - 3 kaffir leaves)
Add 400ml coconut cream/milk with green vegetables e.g. beans, bok choy, zucchini, brocolli
Salt to taste
When greens are crunchy, serve on a bed of steamed/boiled rice
 @Allgood half tsp ginger gives it a flavoursome kick.

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## Flyblown

Yeah @Pauli they can be a bit tough, age as long as you can. The curry recipe you just posted will be my next effort, thanks. 

We have peacocks here, they are waaayyy smarter than pheasants, their eyesight is incredible and they will move off when they see us coming, from as far as 800-900m as we have learnt (the hard way). Getting within rimfire range is impossible simply due to the terrain and the way the birds have set up their home range, bloody clever the way they’ve got pretty close to a 320-330° view, with a small block of native to bolt to at first sign of danger.

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## Bill999

they are not smart at all at night time

You can shoot as many as you like with a subsonic 22

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## Pauli

I enjoy time on the trigger during daylight hours but I feel a night time recce coming on...

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## Filthman

It's all good....clean free range meat...we just take the breasts .I know people in Whakatane that eat heaps of it and have many ways of cooking it

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## 2Quack

Peacock breast sliced thin and done like schnitzel is damn tasty .....

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## Flyblown

Thats cheating @Bill999, wheres the fun in that?!

Righto, where did I put that torch mount...

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