Skinning game birds

To save plucking, you can skin your birds; this is really only successful with pheasant as duck and goose skin is arguably the nicest bit. Remember to remove the leg sinews from an unplucked bird. If you are using any of the casserole recipes for pheasant, just skin them. There is an interesting way to remove the breast from a whole pheasant: lay the bird on its back on the floor, put your feet on either side of the bird firmly on each wing, grasp the legs and pull upwards and your pheasant will come in half leaving the breast to be cut off the wings. If you pull the sinews before starting this then you can just skin the legs as well and devil them or make confit with them.