Cassell's dictionary of cookery

well-hung pheasants. Pluck, draw, and singe 1 them, and cut thorn into neat joints. Take out the bones carefully, and shape the joints into cutlets ; Flatten these with the cutlet- | bat, season rather highly, and cover them j thickly with egg and tinely-grated breadcrumbs. Put the bones and trimmings into a i saucepan, with a carrot, a turnip, an onion, a i handful of parsley, a sprig of thyme, a bay-leaf, | a little pepper and salt, and as much water as j will cover them. Let them stew slowly, until \ the flavour of the herbs, &c., is drawn out, tl.eu I thicken the gravy, and strain it. Fry tiie i cutlets in hot lat over a clear fire until they are ' brightly browned all over. Serve on a hot | dish with one of the small bones stuck into each \ cutlet. The gravy must be made hot, and poured j round them. Time to broil the cutlets, ten or | twelve minutes. Probable cost of pheasants, I 3s. each when in full season. Sufficient for eight or nine persons. Pheasant, Fillets of.— Take a well-hung young pheasant. Pluck, draw, and singe it, and then braise the fillets. To do this, cut off the flesh from the breast and wing in one slice from each side ; this will give two large fillets; and to get three fillets of uniform size, flatten the minion or smaller fillets, which consist of the strips of flesh which lie under the wings, with the flesh of the merry-thought, and any little pieces that can be lifted off. Dip the fillets into beaten egg, and then into rather highly- seasoned bread-crumbs. Frj- thin slices of bread of the same size as the fillets in hot fat, until they are lightly browned ; drain and dry them. Fry the fillets also, and when they are equally and brightly browned, serve upon the pieces of toast on a hot dish, with a good gravy poured round them. To make the gravy, stew the bones and trimmings of the pheasant in half a pint of water, with an inch or two of lemon-rind, a pinch of salt, and half a dozen peppercorns. When they have simmered for half an hour or more, strain the gravy, skim carefully, and thicken with a tea-spoonful of brown thickening. Add a dessert-spoonful of mushroom ketchup, or a tea-spoonful of strained lemon- juice, if either are liked ; make the sauce hot, and serve. Time, three-quarters of an hour to stew the sauce, ten or twelve minutes to fry the fillets. Probable cost of pheasants, 3s. each when in full | season. Pheasant, Flavour of. — The pheasant is sometimes domesticated for the table, but the flavour of the bird is decidedly best when in a natural wild state. M. Ude says, " It is not often that pheasants are met with possessing that exquisite taste which is acquired «nly by long keeping, as the damp of this climate prevents their being kept so long as they are in other countries. The hens in general are most delicate. The cocks show their age by their spurs. They are only fit to be eaten when the blood begins to run from the bill, which is commonly six days or a week after they have been killed. The flesh of the pheasant is white, tender, and has a good flavour, if you keep it long enough ; if not, it has no more than a common hen or fowl." Pheasant, Forcemeat for {see Forcemeat for Pheasant).