When I hear a "chef" discuss brining dove overnight to remove a "gamey" taste I have the same sensation of someone dragging fingernails across a blackboard. They may rattle off a bunch of spices in French, toss around "organic' (then also use lard) but they don't know squat about wild bird preparation. The video is nice, the rice sounds nice, but give me a break. Steve Bodio once wrote " I get tired of hearing how dark- fleshed birds “taste like liver”- good LIVER doesn’t taste like liver when it is cooked rare, turned over quickly in hot bacon fat and butter. My disgusted French- born gourmand friend Guy de la Valdene, after he read an American recipe for woodcock that involved two cans of cream of mushroom soup and an hour and a half in the oven, wrote (in Making Game in 1990): “As this recipe negates the whole reason for killing the birds in the first place, why not take it a step further and poach the Woodcock overnight in equal parts of catsup, pabulum, and Pepto- Bismol.” I need to go. I see some kids on my lawn...Gil
