About fifteen years ago, when I was still an avid upland bird hunter, I wrote a recipe book called Pheasant Recipes to Kill For. I wrote it out of desperation when my wife pointed out that our freezer was full of pheasants and the family wasn’t very fond of the few recipes that I used to cook them. I was told to stop hunting or start giving the birds away. I didn’t like either of the options.

I was determined to find recipes that my family would love. I realized that most pheasant recipes were dry and chewy. It’s not like cooking a young chicken with the skin on. Pheasants are older, leaner, and, in almost all cases, they are skinned. Then I remembered something. When I was very young, the grocery stores sold what was called “stewing chickens.” They were older birds, slaughtered when they stopped producing eggs. These chickens were thrown in a pot and slowly stewed to make them more tender.

So, I began to look for a variety of such recipes. It occurred to me that a few hundred years ago most chickens ran around in the barnyard. So, I began with several old Colonial-era recipes like Brunswick Stew and Country Captain. They were instant hits. I expanded with Pheasant Pot Pie, Southwestern Stew, Kentucky Bourbon Chili, and others. They were all excellent. A bonus was that I was cooking large batches. Leftovers could be frozen and when reheated, they were just as good.

It occurred to me that third world countries must also have recipes for their stringy free-roaming village chickens. I collected ten more recipes from Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. I also found six Old World recipes from Europe. Each one was excellent and our freezer was soon emptied out.

I printed the recipe book back then at Kinko’s and sold many to local hunt clubs. The owners were eager to sell them to their customers. They understood that if their hunters could prepare meals that their families loved, they would be likely to come back and hunt more often.

Now I am having Pheasant Recipes to Kill For professionally designed and published. It will be available in paperback on Amazon by early August. There are over 150 bird hunting clubs in America. These clubs will be able to purchase through this website at a discounted rates for quantities of 10 or more.