What to do with cranes.

[ImBillT]

While I don’t care to increase the popularity of crane hunting, I also feel like most people who kill cranes don’t get to kill very many, and those could waste a larger portion of their lifetime’s harvest eating sub-par crane meat.

Breats- trim the silver skin on the outside, then flip over, and trim the exposed portion of the silver skin along with the ball of blood vessels. The silver skin is very thin. On a deer I would NEVER be concerned with silver skin as thin as what is on a crane breast, but crane is different. Their connective tissue is not like other animals. Trim it off the outside, and trim the exposed part of the inside. Next, cut the breast in half to make it thinner. You could probably butterfly it, but I find it simpler to go all the way through. The next step is optional, but I find it beneficial and convenient. PRE-SEASON. Seasoning now basically a dry brine. Crane is great, but you should probably dry brine all your red meat steaks. Thank me later. When I butcher deer or crane, I season, then vac-seal, then freeze. A lot of the time we will make a menu for the week and transfer all the necessary meat from the freezer to the fridge on Sunday. This slow thawing process is just more aging/dry bringing time. DO NOT FREEZE LESS THAN 48hrs AFTER KILLING YOUR CRANE! It needs to come out of rigor, and it needs a little bit of aging. Crane, and a lot of free range cervids, tend to have high percentages of omega-3’s. They can end up fishy with long aging periods line you will find with grain finished beef. A couple days before freezing and a thaw in the fridge is excellent. A week in the fridge before freezing can easily turn “fishy”. Don’t rush to process your crane or you’ll miss out on how tender and “beefy” crane really is. On the other hand, don’t over age it. It will turn on you. 1.5-3 days is perfect. 4-5 days might be pushing it, but dry brining seems to help, even though I don’t think that should help with oxidation of omega-3’s, it does seem to help a lot if you are busy.

GRILL THEM LIKE STEAK!!! THEY TASTE LIKE BEEF! Preferably rare to medium rare. If you like your steak cooked more than that, you need to experiment more! Crane breast is VERY tender, and has an excellent texture that is just as beef like as the flavor.


The main things to take away on crane breast would be to remove the silver skin on the outside even though it’s thin enough that you wouldn’t normally worry about it, to GRILL IT LIKE BEEF, and not to age it too long. I do think that cutting in half to thin it is better for me, but it might not be for you. Before I started thinning it, I felt like it went from tender to tough rather suddenly if I accidentally cooked it past medium rare. Since I started cutting it thinner I believe it tolerates cooking past medium rare much better, even if that’s not ideal.

Pictures below
Inside
Outside
Halving
Pre-seasoned stack
Sealed

 

[ImBillT]

I didn’t get good pics, but the gizzards, livers, and tenderloins are worth saving! If the gut is ruptured and you can’t process immediately, the giblets might turn. I only save them if I’m able to process immediately. The breasts will easily keep 24hrs+ in cool temps, but anything that’s touching guts is 50/50 if you don’t get it out immediately. Again, no good pics, but the ternders have a boney tendon in the middle. You can scrape the tendon, and the meat will come off with zero waste. The tenders are awesome, but it’s hard to get enough to eat them by themselves. It’s easier to add them to giblets. Cut the heart into rings, cube the gizzard, and add the tenders, then cook them in oil, and they make great burrito filling!

Looks like I didn’t get a pic of the tenders cooking, but they’re in the corner of the cutting board while cutting the breasts.

 

[ImBillT]

Thighs and wing meat.

Again I don’t have pics. Maybe I can take some soon.

This is pretty optional, but I hate to waste meat as good as crane. I’ve tried them a number of ways, and I just can’t make a good crane thigh without grinding it. No matter what I do the texture is weird and/or tough. It doesn’t work in a crockpot or as stew meat. The drumsticks are just plain inedible. Something about their tendons, and a lot of their fascia(silver skin) is just plain unusual. When you cook it, it turns into something you might mistake for bone! It hardens into something I think I could stab you with. I’ve tried scraping the meat off of the connective tissue in the drumsticks. It just isn’t worth it. If you don’t scrape it, it will plug your grinder. The wings only have 2-3 pieces of this material at the first joint. I cut the meat from the first joint if it didn’t get shot up. Between the wing meat from the first joint by the breast and the thigh meat, You should get 1/2-3/4lb per bird depending on the bird and how much wing meat you strip off. If I was only going to get 3/year, I would be much more diligent at getting wing meat for grinding. I add about 20% pork fat. At around 2lbs per 3-bird limit, sometimes more after adding fat, two limits makes for a pretty decent burger cookout. I’m not sure if crane makes awesome burger or if anything with that much pork fat makes awesome burger, but I love crane burgers. As with the giblets, if the gut is ruptured(usually from the fall), the thigh meat can turn questionable in well under 24hrs. If your bird fell from pretty high, you should pull the thighs and giblets when you get home. You can let the breasts sit on the bone overnight to come out of rigor before you butcher them.

You really should try grinding thighs, and the easy portions of the wings. They make some excellent burger.

 

[brockel]

Someday I’ll kill one

 

[ImBillT]

Someday I’ll kill one

They really aren’t worth shooting. They are a ton of work to turn into meat and the meat isn’t very good.

This thread is only for people who already killed a crane or arranged an hunt. I just don’t want them to cook the breast with the silver skin on, or cook it well done, or heaven forbid try to cook the bird whole.

If you don’t already hunt cranes, they aren’t worth your trouble.

 

[BucksnDucks]

Rib-eye in the sky. I've been fortunate to eat both Swan and Sandhill Crane. Was not however able to hunt them. Both times breast meat cooked medium rare like a steak. Might not be worth the "trouble" to arrange a hunt but the meat was exceptional.

 

[Doublecluck]

Crane breast, little prime rib rub, grilled to medium rare. Anything else is blasphemy. Do what you will with the rest.

 

[WildWill]

I just don’t want them to cook the breast with the silver skin on, or cook it well done, or heaven forbid try to cook the bird whole.

That about sums it up. I've killed a few in western Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle. Always trimmed the breast well and cooked them like a steak usually with Montreal steak seasoning. My host in Texas once served crane snack sticks made from thighs, legs, and breast tasted like any beef/venison snack stick.

 

[300stw]

we have killed a pile of em, when they fall out of the sky looks like you shot down an airplane,
the grilling of seasoned breasts, medium rare as suggested, is awfully good eating,,,

i like shooting them over decoys, not skyscrapping as they pass by,,,,,

 

[noharleyyet]

They're tasty but rib eye is a stretch. Ken Jr knows how to prep, bread, and deep fry them.

 

[Fire_9]

My little carnivore would disagree about the drumsticks being inedible. We have since started making pozole with them and it’s pretty damn good. And don’t forget about the hearts. Crane hearts fried in crane fat are one of my kids favorite treats.

 

[ImBillT]

My little carnivore would disagree about the drumsticks being inedible. We have since started making pozole with them and it’s pretty damn good. And don’t forget about the hearts. Crane hearts fried in crane fat are one of my kids favorite treats.
View attachment 260405

View attachment 260406

I mentioned the hearts. They’re my favorite part of almost any animal.

Have you tried a drumstick yourself? Either you’ve found the secret or you might question letting your son chew on one.

On all of the drumsticks I tried the fascia between every layer of meat turned into a dry, brittle, and sharp material that would be hazardous to chew on, and the tendons turned into something you could sew leather with. Like a turkey leg times ten.

 

[Fire_9]

I mentioned the hearts. They’re my favorite part of almost any animal.

Have you tried a drumstick yourself? Either you’ve found the secret or you might question letting your son chew on one.

On all of the drumsticks I tried the fascia between every layer of meat turned into a dry, brittle, and sharp material that would be hazardous to chew on, and the tendons turned into something you could sew leather with. Like a turkey leg times ten.

Of course I’ve tried the drumsticks myself. I agree the tendons are a little much but we pull them when we do pozole. It’s a little work and you still a crunchy piece of two but they're still worth doing

 

[TLowell02]

The legs and thighs work very well in a pressure cooker. I wish my roommate and I had one in grad school as it makes me cringe thinking about all the perfectly good meat we wasted by simply breasting the birds.

A couple weeks ago my wife discovered two bags of crane thighs and legs labeled 2017. Whoops! We were recently gifted an Instant Pot and decides to give it a try. I ended up making a crane stew and then a barbacoa-type recipe for tacos. Both turned out perfect! It becomes quite easy to pick those pesky tendons out after an hour.

 

[ImBillT]

The legs and thighs work very well in a pressure cooker. I wish my roommate and I had one in grad school as it makes me cringe thinking about all the perfectly good meat we wasted by simply breasting the birds.

A couple weeks ago my wife discovered two bags of crane thighs and legs labeled 2017. Whoops! We were recently gifted an Instant Pot and decides to give it a try. I ended up making a crane stew and then a barbacoa-type recipe for tacos. Both turned out perfect! It becomes quite easy to pick those pesky tendons out after an hour.

I’m still gonna grind my thighs because I get plenty of slow cooking meat from deer and we go through ground meat pretty fast, BUT, the pressure cooker could be key for anyone not wanting to grind 2-3 lbs.

Great tip!

 

[ImBillT]

I got a pic. Pull that out of the tender! It’s not a great experience to leave it in, but the tenders are great once it’s out.

 

[375H&H]

They're tasty but rib eye is a stretch. Ken Jr knows how to prep, bread, and deep fry them.

Agree. Had a breast this past fall from a Wyoming crane and it was good, but nowhere near what I was expecting given all the hype.

 

[WildWill]

Field in west Texas a few days ago I passed.

 

[ericlpd7]

While I don’t care to increase the popularity of crane hunting, I also feel like most people who kill cranes don’t get to kill very many, and those could waste a larger portion of their lifetime’s harvest eating sub-par crane meat.

Breats- trim the silver skin on the outside, then flip over, and trim the exposed portion of the silver skin along with the ball of blood vessels. The silver skin is very thin. On a deer I would NEVER be concerned with silver skin as thin as what is on a crane breast, but crane is different. Their connective tissue is not like other animals. Trim it off the outside, and trim the exposed part of the inside. Next, cut the breast in half to make it thinner. You could probably butterfly it, but I find it simpler to go all the way through. The next step is optional, but I find it beneficial and convenient. PRE-SEASON. Seasoning now basically a dry brine. Crane is great, but you should probably dry brine all your red meat steaks. Thank me later. When I butcher deer or crane, I season, then vac-seal, then freeze. A lot of the time we will make a menu for the week and transfer all the necessary meat from the freezer to the fridge on Sunday. This slow thawing process is just more aging/dry bringing time. DO NOT FREEZE LESS THAN 48hrs AFTER KILLING YOUR CRANE! It needs to come out of rigor, and it needs a little bit of aging. Crane, and a lot of free range cervids, tend to have high percentages of omega-3’s. They can end up fishy with long aging periods line you will find with grain finished beef. A couple days before freezing and a thaw in the fridge is excellent. A week in the fridge before freezing can easily turn “fishy”. Don’t rush to process your crane or you’ll miss out on how tender and “beefy” crane really is. On the other hand, don’t over age it. It will turn on you. 1.5-3 days is perfect. 4-5 days might be pushing it, but dry brining seems to help, even though I don’t think that should help with oxidation of omega-3’s, it does seem to help a lot if you are busy.

GRILL THEM LIKE STEAK!!! THEY TASTE LIKE BEEF! Preferably rare to medium rare. If you like your steak cooked more than that, you need to experiment more! Crane breast is VERY tender, and has an excellent texture that is just as beef like as the flavor.


The main things to take away on crane breast would be to remove the silver skin on the outside even though it’s thin enough that you wouldn’t normally worry about it, to GRILL IT LIKE BEEF, and not to age it too long. I do think that cutting in half to thin it is better for me, but it might not be for you. Before I started thinning it, I felt like it went from tender to tough rather suddenly if I accidentally cooked it past medium rare. Since I started cutting it thinner I believe it tolerates cooking past medium rare much better, even if that’s not ideal.

Pictures below
Inside
Outside
Halving
Pre-seasoned stack
Sealed

Thank you for this post. I will definitely be pulling this up when I hopefully get a few AZ Cranes this year.

 

[ericlpd7]

Field in west Texas a few days ago I passed.View attachment 262422

Thanks for sharing. Looks like a good set up.