Roast pheasant

[cjsmith]

This roast pheasant recipe is AMAZING.

I brined for four hours, with two bay leaves in the brine. We threw a couple shallots and two more bay leaves into the cavity, I basted with butter, and we put black pepper and savory all over the outside.

I had never before cooked a pheasant. I had never before EATEN pheasant. But oh man this was delicious. And now I have a bunch of pieces for soup, and a chunk to reheat with potatoes and peas, and a chunk to make a cold “salad” with rice. Mmmmmmm.

I shall have to figure out how to add pics. It looked all fancy and stuff.

Comments

[nosrednayduj]

If your picture is on the web:
left angle bracket img src=url-to-your-picture right angle bracket

Don't know how to upload directly.

[cjsmith]

Yeah, that’s the problem I want to solve: where to put them.

[hitchhiker]

it really was!

[cjsmith]

I blame you. :)

[amaebi]

That sounds great.

Was your pheasant a grocery store bird? I keep being disappointed by their lack of gaminess. :( If yours was a grocery store bird, did the brining help?

[cjsmith]

It was farmed, yes, and I got it from a local kind-of-unusual grocery store. I suspect my big chain grocery would never have pheasant.

I have no basis for comparison but I suspect the brining helped, if only because I see so many accounts of people trying to cook this and having it come out dry and tough.

[amaebi]

Yeah, game needs a lot of respect and delicacy.

[cjsmith]

I am guessing a lot of that is due to the lower fat content. One of my coworkers a while back used to hunt, and I learned the dramatic difference between wild duck and restaurant duck. Wild duck isn’t fatty, and it has to be cooked entirely differently.

But other than that, I know very little about it. I don’t cook, so there’s a whole lot of domain-specific knowledge that I lack.

[amaebi]

Yes, that's exactly it. Plus muscles that have been used.

[cjsmith]

From the biology point of view, that totally makes sense. :)