rehydrating salted bird skins

Submitted by John on 8/2/04 at 8:10 AM. ( prentice@aps.edu ) 209.189.130.137

Yep! I clicked the ORANGE button but really did not find out too much about rehydrating salted bird skins. I have a couple of Spruce Grouse coming in the mail and want to do them properly. Any suggestions would be welcomed.

Thanks

John

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I'm not an expert...

This response submitted by James Parrish on 8/2/04 at 10:36 AM. ( ) 204.211.171.11

I've gotten salted bird skins before, but never one that was fully dry. Usually, bird skins are packed with salt, so they are sort of semi-dry. What I've done with these birds is freeze them as soon as I get them unless I can process them that day. When you thaw the bird, dump the excess salt off. If the skin isn't too dry, you can flesh/defat. Otherwise, soak the skin in cool water w/ a little lysol or other bacteriastat. You should let the skin sit in the rinse for a couple of minutes and then dump it out and rinse again. I would say after 3-4 rinses, you can leave the skin in the water for 15-30 min and it should be easily workable. I have never dealt with skins that were allowed to dry hard. Maybe someone else can elaborate.


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