No fussing with feathers

By Steve Bain

Mar 7, 2023

Magpie geese love hanging about in the long grass where they feed by stripping seeds from the stems. They also feed on crops and insects.

This month our resident butcher STEVE BAIN looks at processing poultry for meat without plucking.

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If you start from scratch to process poultry, then you have to deal with removing the feathers.

To do this without pulling off feathers and down (plucking), it basically involves skinning the bird.

A lot of diets these days recommend skinless poultry cuts. So, the non-plucking approach fits the bill.

This approach is also less messy in the field and the photographs are cleaner, too. With this visual appeal in mind (that is, less blood and gore) I’m mindful that the education can be achieved in a less confronting manner.

This story is about butchering and cooking (see page 36) magpie geese.

But I changed out my approach of using the wild bird and have used a store-bought chicken sample as my ‘mannequin’.

Magpie geese are a well-kept secret as Aussie bush tucker.

This wild goose is arguably some of the best meat that you'll ever eat.

However, no worries if you don't have magpie geese available for processing practice — any other small farm poultry like chooks, ducks or geese will make adequate substitutes.