# I ate roadkill today **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 8, 2009, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839 "2009-11-08T20:50:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![smoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@smoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smoke)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839/21 "2009-11-12T19:19:29Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > For a larger bird like a pheasant, I might be tempted to pluck and draw it, as there is worthwhile meat in other places besides the breast - that’s not something I’ve ever attempted before, but how hard can it be? I guess spatchcocking it might be the easiest way to ensure all the guts are out. Since it’s clear you’re more likely than the average person to act upon this if presented with the opportunity, let me offer this really cool breasting technique: Put the pheasant flat on its back, the wings will naturally fall out the sides. Put a foot on each wing, as tight in to the body as possible. Now, grab the legs and pull straight up. Firmly and evenly. What will happen is that you’ll pull the entire pheasant, guts, neck, head and all, right out of the body like a banana. Now you can cut the wings off with shears, and you’ll be left with nothing but a clean, bone-in breast. Has a high entertainment factor as well. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839/22 "2009-11-12T23:10:51Z")
That’s a fascinating, if rather gruesome tip. I wonder if it might fail with roadkill that might have suffered multiple fractures and other bodily trauma… ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839/23 "2009-11-12T23:12:48Z")
Uh…if it wasn’t crushed, how do you know it was roadkill? What if you just ate a diseased bird? ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839/24 "2009-11-12T23:17:52Z")
My mom once said, of some bad cooking done by a friend of hers, “it tasted like eating the ass out of a dead skunk”. Maybe if I stick around, someone will let me know what that’s like. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839/25 "2009-11-12T23:18:00Z")
It was lying in the middle of the road There were feathers everywhere It had an obvious impact injury on its tail end and a patch of road rash on its back where it had hit the tarmac (no injury to the bit I ate though, fortunately). None of that means it _wasn’t_ a diseased bird that just happened to get hit by a vehicle, of course, but it seemed in healthy condition, apart from the injuries, and being dead and all. ---
**Author:** ![Rack-a-Bones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rack-a-Bones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rack-a-Bones)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839/26 "2009-11-13T01:58:16Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but the opportunity and convenience seldom coincide - today though, they did. > > I was driving home from an afternoon rehearsal for a Christmas variety show and there was a pigeon in the middle of the road - dead, with feathers scattered everywhere, but intact and not crushed under wheels or anything. > > I stopped and picked it up into a carrier bag to take home - it had obviously only just been killed, as it was still warm and limp. > > It was a young bird and not enormously plump - I just plucked and filleted out the breast - not a bad little morsel of meat, which I sliced thinly, floured and quickly fried, then finished off with a splash of red wine. It was delicious. City slicker checking in here. Where you are is this a game bird? Because on the streets of Seattle the pigeon is nothing more than a flying diseased rodent. > [@smoke](#): > > Since it’s clear you’re more likely than the average person to act upon this if presented with the opportunity, let me offer this really cool breasting technique: > > Put the pheasant flat on its back, the wings will naturally fall out the sides. Put a foot on each wing, as tight in to the body as possible. Now, grab the legs and pull straight up. Firmly and evenly. What will happen is that you’ll pull the entire pheasant, guts, neck, head and all, right out of the body like a banana. Now you can cut the wings off with shears, and you’ll be left with nothing but a clean, bone-in breast. > > Has a high entertainment factor as well. :eek: Does that really work? ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839/27 "2009-11-13T02:31:27Z")
Just using the breast of a pheasant is a damn waste of good meat. ---
**Author:** ![fifty-six](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@fifty-six](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fifty-six)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839/28 "2009-11-13T02:44:52Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > Just using the breast of a pheasant is a damn waste of good meat. Agree. Instead of all that plucking I just remove the skin. Much faster. There is usually so little fat on the wild ones that is is almost worthless. If need be you can make new skin with bacon. I eat the whole bird. I do the same when I raise chickens. Just skin them, so much faster and cleaner. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839/29 "2009-11-13T03:22:28Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I ate roadkill today. Glad it was not a vehicle-pedestrian meal. ---
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839/30 "2009-11-13T06:27:45Z")
I hope you flossed and brushed your teeth thoroughly when you were done. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839/31 "2009-11-13T14:20:26Z")
I think you’ll enjoy this story. The deer is in the freezer already. [Deer loses head-butt with lawn ornament](http://lacrossetribune.com/news/local/article_9ee5d1bc-cdbc-11de-a418-001cc4c002e0.html) > [@](#): > > Brye claimed the buck with a tag from the Vernon County conservation warden. He laughed at the warden’s tag note: “lawn ornament fight - lost.” ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839/32 "2009-11-13T14:38:15Z")
Walking along a little two lane highway deep in the redwoods, I came across a warm, plump and seemingly undamaged gray squirrel belly up on the center line. I was with a friend who said he knew what to do with it and we took it home, slipped off it’s little glove of skin and stewed it… Edible but memorable only in it’s origin. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839/33 "2009-11-13T17:11:40Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > It was lying in the middle of the road > > There were feathers everywhere > > It had an obvious impact injury on its tail end and a patch of road rash on its back where it had hit the tarmac (no injury to the bit I ate though, fortunately). > > None of that means it _wasn’t_ a diseased bird that just happened to get hit by a vehicle, of course, but it seemed in healthy condition, apart from the injuries, and being dead and all. Well, okay then. But I still think I’m with **Rack-a-Bones**. Where I live, pigeons are winged rats. Eating them is…vomitrocious. ---
**Author:** ![not\_austin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c68b51/32.png) [@not\_austin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_austin)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2009, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839/34 "2009-11-13T21:59:29Z")
> [@Neverender](#): > > That’s definitely the case with pheasant so I’d assume it’s the case with other wildlife too. > I think this got mentioned on QI a while back. IANAL but I seem to recall this got altered by a judgement in a case 7 or 8 years ago where a judge ruled that a car did not come under the heading of a hunting machine as when the law was drafted cars had not been invented. Prior to that you were not allowed to keep any wildlife you might have struck with your car. Now to go and hunt for a cite… ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2009, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839/35 "2009-11-14T20:33:06Z")
> [@Rack-a-Bones](#): > > City slicker checking in here. Where you are is this a game bird? Because on the streets of Seattle the pigeon is nothing more than a flying diseased rodent. I live in a semi-rural part of southern England - the bird was a young [wood pigeon](http://www.birdguides.com/birdnews/docs/OR165701.jpg) - quite a different thing from the diseased feral rock pigeons one finds in most cities. Although I have visited cities where the feral pigeons look pretty healthy, and I have been tempted by them. People usually make noises and tell me about the horrible things feral pigeons eat, when I mention this, but I don’t regard that as a big problem - as I’m not intending to eat the digestive system, and if I objected to food on the basis of what that food consumed when alive, that would rule out a huge list of things, including lobster. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839/36 "2009-11-15T11:48:37Z")
> [@Randy\_Seltzer](#): > > That’s gone however. Now I truly believe you live up to your username. 😃 I refuse to credit him in this respect till he confirms eating the feathers. ---
**Author:** ![old\_joe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/58956e/32.png) [@old\_joe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/old_joe)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839/37 "2009-11-15T17:17:51Z")
> [@Rack-a-Bones](#): > > Does that really work? Nope! Ive done it hundreds of times and only the breasts comes out. Since thats pretty much all there is to eat its fine. Perhaps he was thinking of a rabbit, if you slit the skin near the rear feet you can pull the who shabang off like a sweater. I usually cut the head off then gut it. Pretty quick. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839/38 "2009-11-16T23:17:01Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > I refuse to credit him in this respect till he confirms eating the feathers. Am I allowed to eat them by first converting them into a peach? (feathers make quite a good slow-release fertiliser if buried under the roots of a fruit tree, so I’m told). ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839/39 "2009-11-17T00:10:09Z")
Well alright, but I can’t help feeling that’s cheating. ---
**Author:** ![smoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@smoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smoke)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2009, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839/40 "2009-11-17T02:28:11Z")
> [@old\_joe](#): > > Nope! Ive done it hundreds of times and only the breasts comes out. Since thats pretty much all there is to eat its fine. Perhaps he was thinking of a rabbit, if you slit the skin near the rear feet you can pull the who shabang off like a sweater. I usually cut the head off then gut it. Pretty quick. Not sure what you think you’re disputing here, but here’s a video on someone doing exactly what I described: [link](http://www.gamebirdhunts.com/Resources/HowtoFieldDressaPheasant/tabid/352/Default.aspx) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-ate-roadkill-today/516839.md?page=1)