HELP- Simple way to cook Phesant for first time please



R

Rick

Guest
I am "about" to cook (and taste) pheasant for the first time. Can any of the subscribers offer me a
"simple" method of cooking such a dish please.

Thanks.

Rick.
 
Rick wrote:

> I am "about" to cook (and taste) pheasant for the first time. Can any of the subscribers offer me
> a "simple" method of cooking such a dish please.

Brine for 12 hours (1 gal water, 3/4 cup salt, sprig rosemary, 1/4 cup minced onion, tablespoon
sugar), roast at 300 until a quick-read thermometer in the thigh reads 165. Pull, let rest for 20
minutes, carve.

Seasoning should be minimal, garlic powder, white pepper and maybe seasoning salt all over the skin.
A small onion, a sprig of thyme and half a lemon in the cavity, loosely.

Pastorio
 
Rick <[email protected]> wrote:

> I am "about" to cook (and taste) pheasant for the first time. Can any of the subscribers offer me
> a "simple" method of cooking such a dish please.

Here is a very nice recipe for pheasant braised with celery. Braising with added fat is a good way
to deal with meat that is often on the dry side. There are quite a few steps to follow, but they are
simple and straightforward. The recipe appeared in The Spectator, in 1995. It is by the late
Jennifer Patterson.

Victor

Pheasant with celery

1 young, tender roasting pheasant 2 oz streaky salt pork or unsmoked bacon 3 oz butter 4 fluid oz
dry white wine 1 large head of celery 2 tablespoons of olive oil small glass of brandy, Armagnac
or Calvados

To cook the pheasant it is best to have an oval casserole in which the bird just fits. Melt 1
ounce of the butter in the pot, add the diced pork or bacon and start to sweat them. Work the
second ounce of butter with a little salt and freshly ground pepper and place it within the
pheasant. When the fat from the pork starts melting, put the bird in on its side and let it cook
gently until golden brown, before turning it over and adding the heated wine. Let the wine bubble
for a few seconds, then turn the heat down very low, cover the pot and cook gently for 40 to 45
minutes, turning the bird over at half time. Scrape the cleansed celery (try to get some good
celery with taste, usually the dirtier the better), removing the strings from the outer stalks,
trim off the leaves and cut into 1/2-inch chunks. Melt the third ounce of butter and the olive
oil in a large, heavy frying-pan. Put in the celery and stir it around to coat with the fat,
sprinkle a little salt over it, cover and let it simmer gently for ten minutes. Take a tablespoon
of the juices from the bird and stir into the celery, then cook for another five minutes.
Transfer to fine, hot serving dish, large enough the hold the pheasant as well. Place the bird in
the centre and, if convenient, carve for serving at this stage. Surround with the little bits of
pork or bacon. Keep the dish warm and covered while you reduce the juices in the pot by boiling
rapidly for a minute or two. Add the brandy or whatever and cook a minute longer. Transfer to a
hot sauce-boat and serve with the pheasant. Celery goes very well with game birds and this makes
a handsome dish needing but a few little potatoes to accompany it.
 
On 14 Feb 2004 13:15:39 -0800, [email protected] (Rick) wrote:

>I am "about" to cook (and taste) pheasant for the first time. Can any of the subscribers offer me a
>"simple" method of cooking such a dish please.
>
We have had success braising a pheasant in a closed pot. It may be possible to roast it but I
haven't succeeded to my satisfaction.

Specifically, I believe Pastorio can do it the way he said, but I would feel safer with Victor's
method, which is approximately what I have done. I have had roast pheasant that was unpleasantly dry
on the tongue.

Also, after you have eaten the breast meat and leg/thighs, put it all back in the oven and roast it
dark. It will make a glorious stock, which you then can use to make risotto, farrotto, or whatever
else you might use a brownish stock for.

Rodney Myrvaagnes NYC J36 Gjo/a

The sound of a Great Blue Heron's wingbeats going by your head
 
Rodney Myrvaagnes wrote:

> On 14 Feb 2004 13:15:39 -0800, [email protected] (Rick) wrote:
>
>
>>I am "about" to cook (and taste) pheasant for the first time. Can any of the subscribers offer me
>>a "simple" method of cooking such a dish please.
>>
>
> We have had success braising a pheasant in a closed pot. It may be possible to roast it but I
> haven't succeeded to my satisfaction.
>
> Specifically, I believe Pastorio can do it the way he said, but I would feel safer with Victor's
> method, which is approximately what I have done. I have had roast pheasant that was unpleasantly
> dry on the tongue.

And that's a definite hazard with wild birds. Domesticated pheasants are typically fatter, so,
more moist.

I'll amend what I said about dry-roasting them if they're wild birds. I generally slide bacon (that
I've blanched by dropping into boiling water for a minute or so) under the skin over the breast and
down into the legs. If it's a larger bird with very little body fat, I'll take it a step further by
injecting warm fat into the meat with a kitchen hypodermic before cooking. Either commercial lard or
chicken fat reserved from some prior stockmaking episode, because they're fairly neutral flavors.
Could use goose fat.

> Also, after you have eaten the breast meat and leg/thighs, put it all back in the oven and roast
> it dark. It will make a glorious stock, which you then can use to make risotto, farrotto, or
> whatever else you might use a brownish stock for.

I often cheat by adding a chicken carcass and maybe a veal knuckle for the gelatin so I can get more
stock from whatever birds I roast. We get wild ducks (several varieties), geese, doves, pheasant,
and feral chickens and guinea hens around here.

> The sound of a Great Blue Heron's wingbeats going by your head

We also see herons. I live on the banks of the Shenandoah river and within short distances to some
sizable ponds. We see big birds rather often in the warm months. They're magical creatures, looking
like some pterodactyl in flight with their long necks and trailing feet. Even though they're rather
common, when one alights at the edge of a pond, passing traffic slows to watch the majestic bird
stride in its stately fashion as it goes about its way of making a living.

Pastorio