How do you clean a dove??

[winchester1300]

Woooohoooo! Dove season starts tomorrow! Problem being I am not sure what to do with any doves if I get them. I saw one get "cleaned" once last year. I think he pulled the feathers off the breast and then...ummm did some other stuff....and pulled the breast meat out. How do you do that?? Sorry bout the stupid question, but hey, I am new to this. Thank you for any insight you may provide.

 

[Art Eatman]

In the field, mostly thumbs. I only keep the breast of a dove. A thumbnail at the rear of the breast will break the skin. It rips real easy, so you can peel all the skin off the breast and back. I then use my thumbnail to break the "innards" loose and pull out all the guts. Then, a bit of brute force to tear the back away from the breast and wings. I push forward through the middle, pushing out the craw. You just twist the head off, and don't worry about the neck. Or the wings.

Unless the weather is pretty hot, I don't worry about all this until the shooting is done.

At home, in not-quite-warm water, I clean off all the feathers and try to squeeze out any shot close to the skin. I use scissors to cut off the wings.

First, hit the dove.

, Art

 

[Calif Hunter]

I pluck some feathers off the breast, slit the skin over the breast and peel it off the breast. I cut through the ribs with shears or heavy scissors (or just pull real hard) to free up the breast. It's easier with the poultry shears to just cut through the joints at the wings (leaving one wing one til I get home for F&G species ID requirements) and ribs at the back, etc. Any "innards" still attached are just pulled off. Then I wash the meat to remove feathers, blood, etc. I also just keep the breast.

 

[bergie]

Take your knife and cut the wings off at the first joint (elbow), as pointed out, for transport i.d. leave one whole wing, knick the skin with your knife and peel it off the breast, over the wing stubs and off the upper back. Then, this is the slick part, lay your knife lengthwise, flat on the middle of the back, slide the blade down between the shoulder blade and the ribs, just about 3/4", it will slip right down and you will feel it it slice right through (kind of like filleting a fish, you will know the feeling when you do it right) then make a very small cut at the bottom of the breast, just enough to be able to hook the end of a finger on the bottom of the breast, grab the legs and tail with the other hand and pull them right apart, all of the innards stay innards - contained in the ribcage - tail, legs, all the guts, the back, crop, neck and head are tossed and in the other hand you have an almost ready to eat breast.
Very slick, very clean, and the whole process takes less time to do than to describe. I will take a whole minute when doing it slow to show someone how, otherwise 30 seconds. You wind up with almost no blood on your hands, and you never even touch the guts. rinse them off, cut out any visible shot and shot/feather balls and they are ready for the pan.
Good luck,
bergie