A swan dinner with roasted swan, ham, swan dressing, swan soup, giblet gravy, rice, sweet potatoes, green tea and homemade pear wine.

  Rather than relying on smell to let me know when the swan is ready as I usually do, I tried to time the cooking process and cooked the bird too long. The breast fell from the carcass, but was still moist and excellent because it had been cooked in moisture and in aluminum foil. I use the same method for wild turkey as described in previous posts and videos.  For a large swan, the optimum cooking time for this method is about 3 hours.

Making swan soup.

  As I cook the bird the day before, I made a swan soup from the bones, leg quarters and odd bits of meat on the carcass. This year I used a Camp Traditions Wild Rice Soup Mix that was furnished by the manufacturer. I did add some extra white rice, dill weed, salt and pepper. The soup was very good and enjoyed by me and my guest, Bill Krantz, who had participated with me on several swan hunts at Lake Mattamuskeet, NC.

  New this year I also had some homemade pear wine that was made from the fruit of the hard southern canning pear. Making other products from this fruit was also been described in a previous post and video where I described making poached pears, pear sauce and pear pies from this fruit. These pears are hard and only after they have been frozen are they easily eatable as an uncooked product.

  This video is also up on YouTube. If you have any problems viewing it here go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJOZmLMpdzg.