Game Birds: Butchery to Plate
How to cook game birds from the whole bird: defeathering, butchery, coals or pan, resting, then duck, partridge, pigeon and quail plated.
James Knappett
Chef and co-owner, Kitchen Table · London
No payment due now. Every masterclass, 50,000+ recipes, 1,500+ chefs.
What you'll learn
8 Lessons, 102 min total
- FREE
Introduction
- FREE
#1 Intro to Game Birds
- FREE
#2 Butchering Game Birds
- FREE
#3 Duck Leg Sausage with Preserved Rhubarb
- FREE
#4 Duck Breast with Wild Beefsteak Mushroom
- PRO
#5 Red-Legged Partridge Breast with Black Pickled Walnuts
- PRO
#6 Red-legged Partridge Lollipop with Confit Kumquat
- PRO
#7 Wood Pigeon Breast with Pickled Blackberries
- PRO
#8 Quail Breast with Cep Mushrooms
About this course
How to cook game birds, from the feathers in: defeathering and butchery that transfer to almost any bird, then seasoning, controlled heat over coals or in a pan, and a rest long enough to keep the meat juicy. Eight lessons across four birds: duck, red-legged partridge, wood pigeon and quail.
The butchery is the transferable part. Breasts come off clean, and the legs are treated as a second serving rather than trim: a duck leg becomes a sausage, a partridge leg becomes a lollipop. Once a bird is broken down, the decisions are size and fat content, not species, so the order holds at every scale.
Each bird is finished as a whole plate, with its sauce and garnish built alongside it: preserved rhubarb, wild beefsteak mushroom, black pickled walnuts, confit kumquat, pickled blackberries, cep.
"Game flavour isn't something to hide. It's beautiful, complex, and fascinating."
James Knappett · Chef-Patron/Co-Founder @ Kitchen Table
Lessons
8
Video
1 hr 42 min HD
Recipes
9
Level
Audio
English (VO)
Subtitles
English, French, German, Spanish, Italian
At the end of this course you will be able to
Defeather and butcher any game bird down to breast, leg, wing and carcass.
Cook duck leg into a sausage and duck breast in the pan, resting both properly.
Cook partridge, pigeon and quail breast to temperature without drying the small cuts.
Build the pickles and garnishes that go with each bird, then plate them consistently.
Game birds today, nordic game meat tomorrow.
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Meet your instructor
James Knappett
Chef and co-owner, Kitchen Table, London · Trained at Per Se and Noma
James Knappett is a British chef who trained at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London, then at Thomas Keller's Per Se in New York and René Redzepi's Noma in Copenhagen, sharpening an ingredient-led, seasonal style he still cooks by.
In 2012 he and his wife opened Kitchen Table, a 20-seat dining room built on meticulous sourcing, foraging and a menu that changes daily. Here he brings that sourcing to game birds, working from the whole bird through to the finished plate.
What chefs say
“Gronda has excellent content from extremely talented chefs. I absolutely insist that all in house culinary personnel have Gronda on their phone. It is a valuable learning tool.”
Markus
Who is this course for?
New to game or years of seasons
First-time and long-practised game cooks who want breasts, legs and sauces all done right.
A game plate that feels complete
Chefs who want defeathering, butchery, controlled heat and resting explained bird by bird.
Anyone who wants more from game birds
Duck, red-legged partridge, wood pigeon and quail cooks who want the whole bird, not the breast.
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Game Birds · James Knappett
