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Hanging birds is a very old practice. Wait till you learn how long people hang pheasants.

Brillat-Savarin: “the peak is reached when the pheasant begins to decompose; its aroma develops, and mixes with an oil which in order to form must undergo a certain amount of fermentation, just as the oil in coffee can only be drawn out by roasting it.”

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In french they even have a verb derived from this process of hanging a pheasant to develop its aroma: "faisander", which comes from "faisan", the french word for pheasant.

That's... so French. Thanks for adding this bit. I'm always in need of culinary history ammo when I am confronted with having to feed people who only trust industrially processed food. Such as many of my relatives.

Was always told it was ready when you could pull it's flesh off with two sticks. Then to be eaten bloody rare. It's delicious in that style but you don't see high pheasant served much anymore unfortunately.

That said, you hang pheasants prior to plucking and gutting, so they are still sealed; feels odder hanging a plucked bird like a chicken. I'm not sure if the former is in fact safer?

Hanging it prior to gutting sounds gross...organs go bad much quicker I would think.

I think it is a different story because of the size of the animal. They do not retain as much heat as a larger animal like a goose or turkey.

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