How To Truss Pheasants, Etc

Pheasants are trussed in the same manner as fowls, and so are partridges and grouse, with the exception that, like all small wild fowl, the legs are crossed and the heads skinned and threaded on skewers through the pinions; pigeons and other birds of a similar size are trussed in such a manner as to make the breasts plump out.

Snipe and woodcock are trussed in France by thrusting the long beak through the body and fastening the wings under the thighs; woodcocks are sometimes trussed with the head "hooded," as it is called, under the skin of the breast.

Braised Pheasant

, Prepare and truss a pheasant as for boiling. Line a stewpan with slices of fat bacon and one or two thick slices of veal, put in the bird, season it well with salt and pepper, add a few sweet herbs, cover it with more slices of bacon and veal, cover the stewpan down perfectly air-tight, and put it in a moderate oven and cook for two hours. When done place it on a hot dish, strain over it some of the gravy that will have run from it while cooking, garnish it with sliced lemons, and serve.

Braised Pheasant, Financiere

Prepare and braise two pheasants. Then prepare a financiere, garnishing with foies gras, cockscombs, truffles and pheasant forcemeat quenelles, and mix with them some financiere sauce. Put a block of fried bread in the center of a dish, sticking it onto the dish with the white of egg and flour paste; arrange the pheasants, leaning against each end of the bread, put the garnishing in the dish in order, put a row of pheasant forcemeat quenelles between each pheasant, a cooked and larded sweetbread each side of the bread, with cooked truffles on each. Put four crayfish and some cockscombs in the spaces, and put another larded and sweetbread on top of the bread. Get five silver attelettes and garnish them with cockscombs, truffles and crayfish, stick them in the pheasants and sweetbreads, and serve with a sauceboatful of financiere sauce that has been reduced with essence of pheasant.

Broiled Pheasant

Cut the bird into four pieces and fry them in lard; when nicely browned all over and half done through, take them from the fire, drain the lard from them, brush over with beaten egg, roll them in a paper of breadcrumbs mixed with salt and cayenne, put them on a hot well-greased gridiron and broil them for ten minutes over a clear fire.

Fillets Of Pheasants, Maintenon

Take the fillets from two large young pheasants and cut each in two slices, beat them lightly, season with salt and pepper, put them into a sautepan with two tablespoonfuls of olive oil and saute them over a quick fire, keeping them rather underdone. When cooked, take the fillets out and drain them. Put two chopped onions in the sautepan and fry them till lightly browned, adding more oil if necessary; then mix in two tablespoonfuls each of chopped mushrooms and chopped parsley and one pint of white sauce seasoning with salt, pepper, grated nutmeg and one-half teaspoonful of sugar. Bail the sauce till thickly reduced, stirring it at the same time; put the fillets in the sauce, move it away from the fire and leave it till cold. Cut as many pieces of white paper as there are fillets into heart-shaped pieces; put a fillet on each with the sauce divided equally and wrap the papers over, twisting them well at the ends. Broil the fillets over a clear, but slow fire. When cooked put them on a hot dish, leaving them in their papers, and serve with a sauceboatful of rich gravy.