This is a very elegant remove, and can be made where woodcocks are
plentiful, but to the economiser it would appear a most extravagant
extravaganza; procure two large pheasants and six woodcocks, fillet the
woodcocks and cut each fillet in halves lengthwise, put two ounces of
scraped bacon in a sautépan with a tablespoonful of chopped eschalots
and half a pottle of chopped mushrooms; lay the fillets over them,
season with pepper and salt, set them over the fire five minutes, turn
the fillets, set them again on the fire five minutes longer, add twenty
tablespoonfuls of bechamel sauce (No. 7), half a pound of cockscombs
previously cooked, a little grated nutmeg, and half a spoonful of sugar;
it must be rather highly seasoned; add three yolks of eggs, stir a
minute over the fire till the egg sets, then put it on a dish to cool;
when firm divide it in two, and stuff the pheasants with it, having
previously extracted all the breast bone, sew the skin of the neck over
on the back, but do not draw it too tight, or it would burst on the
breast; surround with fat bacon, and tie them in oiled paper; roast them
one hour, but just before they are done take off the paper and bacon;
shake flour over, and they will become brown and crisp; have ready
prepared the following sauce: put the remainder of the woodcocks in a
stewpan, with two glasses of sherry, a pint of white stock, two
eschalots (cut in slices), a little parsley, thyme, and bay-leaf, two
cloves, and half a blade of mace, let simmer a quarter of an hour, add a
quart of brown sauce, let the whole boil together twenty minutes at the
corner of the stove, take out the pieces of woodcock, and pass the sauce
through a tammie into a clean stewpan, take the flesh and trails of the
woodcocks from the bones, which pound well in the mortar, then put it in
the sauce, boil it up again, season with a little pepper, salt, and half
a teaspoonful of sugar, and rub it through a tammie with two wooden
spoons, the sauce is then ready; for garniture cut twenty-four pieces of
bread in the form of hearts, cover them on one side with forcemeat (No.
123) rather thick in the middle, and fix a cockscomb ready dressed upon
each; butter a sauté-pan, and lay them in it; cover them over with a
sheet of buttered paper, and place them half an hour in a moderate oven;
make a border of forcemeat (No. 120), poached in pieces an inch broad
and half an inch thick, which lay on your dish, upon which dress them,
place the pheasants in the centre, pour the sauce round, glaze the birds
and cockscombs, and serve.
The way to carve pheasants dressed this way is as follows: the breast
being free from bone, detach the legs with a knife, and cut the breast
in slices in a slanting direction; the scraped bacon will escape in
roasting, keeping the birds moist; they will not cut greasy, but will
have a marbled appearance like gallantine.