If this bird be eaten three days after it has been killed, it then has
no peculiarity of flavour; a pullet would be more relished, and a quail
would surpass it in aroma. Kept, however, a proper length of time,—and
this can be ascertained by a slight smell and change of colour,—then
it becomes a highly-flavoured dish, occupying, so to speak, the middle
distance between chicken and venison. It is difficult to define any
exact time to “hang” a pheasant; but any one possessed of the instincts
of gastronomical science, can at once detect the right moment when a
pheasant should be taken down, in the same way as a good cook knows
whether a bird should be removed from the spit, or have a turn or two
more.
PHEASANT, Broiled (a Breakfast or Luncheon Dish).
_Ingredients._—1 pheasant, a little lard, egg and bread-crumbs, salt
and cayenne to taste. _Mode._—Cut the legs off at the first joint,
and the remainder of the bird into neat pieces; put them into a
frying-pan with a little lard, and when browned on both sides, and
about half done, take them out and drain them; brush the pieces over
with egg, and sprinkle with bread-crumbs with which has been mixed a
good seasoning of cayenne and salt. Broil them over a moderate fire
for about 10 minutes, or rather longer, and serve with mushroom-sauce,
sauce piquante, or brown gravy, in which a few game-bones and trimmings
have been stewed. _Time._—Altogether ½ hour. _Sufficient_ for 4 or
5 persons. _Seasonable_ from the 1st of October to the beginning of
February.
PHEASANT, to Carve.
Fixing the fork in the breast, let the carver cut slices from it in
the direction of the lines from 2 to 1: these are the prime pieces.
If there be more guests to satisfy than these slices will serve, then
let the legs and wings be disengaged in the same manner as described in
carving boiled fowl, the point where the wing joins the neckbone being
carefully found. The merrythought will come off in the same way as that
of a fowl. The most valued parts are the same as those which are most
considered in a fowl.
[Illustration: ROAST PHEASANT.]