Quail

booksw

 @HendersonTRKing this cook is inspired by your experience and by your recommendations...

Our hunter friend gave us a hefty leaf bag of frozen meat.  It contained a quart size bag of quail, and a venison summer sausage.  I brined the quail in a qt of buttermilk, then after 30 minutes added the remainder of the brine (which I had boiled and then let come to room temp) that included: 2 cups of water, 2 cups of apple juice, 1/2 c salt, 1/2 c brown sugar, pepper corns, orange peel, fresh oregano, and sliced garlic.  After another 90 minutes in the brine+buttermilk, I rinsed them, rubbed them with Busters Rub, wrapped them in bacon, and put them on the egg at 225 with apple wood chips and a pan of water on the place setter.  I plan to pull them when they reach 165 internal...

NPHuskerFL

My my my Dat looks mmmm  good!

Killit_and_Grillit

  Nice. Watch out for bird shot. 

bgebrent

Only deep fried quail we've shot.  Interested to see how you like it!

booksw

I agree that it looks good BUT it was essentially a Quail Fail.  It was really dry.  I am not sure how I would do it differently if I ever got them again.  You're right @Killit_and_Grillit, there was some bird shot in it!  Sort of like a tiny peppercorn.

I put them on the egg at 6 PM at 225 grid and a pan of water.  I had read that they would be done in about 1.5 hours or less.  The meat temp went up gradually until about 150 and then stalled (around 7:30pm).  At 8:00 I raised the temp of the egg to 325 and at 8:25pm I pulled the meat (now reading 147 on my internal probe, confirmed with my instaread).  Despite the low temp read, they were plenty done- probably over done.

The meat may have been a fail but the journey was still amazing- nothing like hanging around the smoking BGE on a lovely warm evening.  I got that beautiful way to look at it from @lousubcap

Killit_and_Grillit

So when I do quail, dove, etc I typically cook it quicker. I put my bacon in the oven for about 10 minutes on 400 just to get it started.  The bacon fat will give you a little leeway but quail doesn't have a lot of fat. So I put the grill at 350 and go until the bacon is done. Typically if I have people that aren't used to real organic meat I will stick a glob of cream cheese and a piece of fresh jalapeño in there just to give it a little bite and some moisture. They are like crack. I do that with venison in the winter too. Great for ball game snacks. 

Also so if you are trying to get that flavor out just use the buttermilk and rinse before cooking. I never had much luck with wild birds in a brine. I save that for funky meat like wild boar (my buddy does it on his moose)

Killit_and_Grillit

bgebrent said:

Only deep fried quail we've shot.  Interested to see how you like it!

Or this! Those little dudes are amazing fried. Especially if you killed a bunch and don't want to go through the hassle of the prep with a large group of hunters. 

HendersonTRKing

booksw said:

I agree that it looks good BUT it was essentially a Quail Fail.  It was really dry.  I am not sure how I would do it differently if I ever got them again.  You're right @Killit_and_Grillit, there was some bird shot in it!  Sort of like a tiny peppercorn.

I put them on the egg at 6 PM at 225 grid and a pan of water.  I had read that they would be done in about 1.5 hours or less.  The meat temp went up gradually until about 150 and then stalled (around 7:30pm).  At 8:00 I raised the temp of the egg to 325 and at 8:25pm I pulled the meat (now reading 147 on my internal probe, confirmed with my instaread).  Despite the low temp read, they were plenty done- probably over done.

The meat may have been a fail but the journey was still amazing- nothing like hanging around the smoking BGE on a lovely warm evening.  I got that beautiful way to look at it from @lousubcap

Truly admire the attempt!  L&S may just be too much for so lean a bird.  Learning from your experience, I'll probably stick with raised direct at 350-400, but still bacon-wrapped and turned frequently to ensure even cooking when not in spatch mode.   

booksw

Fun lessons learned! Thanks!