Skip to main content
Main

Pheasant's Legs, Devilled

A dish of pheasant legs coated in a butter, mustard, and anchovy mixture, then grilled and served with melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pheasant's Legs, Devilled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the skin from the pheasant legs and score the flesh twice crosswise on each side of the bone.

  2. Melt the butter and mix it with salt, pepper, cayenne, mustard, and essence of anchovy.

  3. Spread the mixture on the legs, ensuring it gets into the scores.

  4. Cover the legs and let them sit in a cool place for several hours.

Cook and serve

  1. When ready to cook, place the legs on a greased grill over gentle heat.

  2. Broil slowly, turning them every minute.

  3. Serve on a hot dish with melted butter poured over them.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Mustard + anchovytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Pepper + anchovytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Carries the seasonings and adds richness and moisture as it melts over the legs.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that balances the richness of the meat and fat.
Essence of anchovy
Adds a deep savoury, umami note that enhances the meaty flavour.

The step that matters

Broil slowly, turning every minute. Gentle heat and frequent turning let the thick leg meat cook through before the seasoned surface over-browns or burns. Scoring the flesh helps heat and seasoning reach the bone.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, anchovy):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, anchovy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes