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Pheasant, Salmis of

A roasted pheasant served with brown sauce, liver, truffle, and fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pheasant, Salmis of

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pheasant

  1. Pluck the pheasant.

  2. Draw the pheasant.

  3. Truss the pheasant for roasting.

  4. Baste the pheasant well with hot butter.

  5. Roast the pheasant in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 minutes, basting frequently.

  6. Strain the basting butter into a stewpan.

  7. Divide the bird into neat joints.

  8. Set aside the breast, wings, and legs.

  9. Cut the remainder into small pieces.

Make the sauce and braise

  1. Reheat the butter in the stewpan.

  2. Add the small pieces of pheasant to the stewpan.

  3. Add the lemon rind, shallots, bay leaf, and thyme to the stewpan.

  4. Fry the mixture well.

  5. Drain off the butter.

  6. Return the pheasant pieces to the stewpan.

  7. Heat the brown sauce in a stewpan.

  8. Add the wine to the sauce.

  9. Season the sauce to taste.

  10. Simmer the sauce for 10 minutes.

  11. Add the pheasant to the sauce.

Assemble and serve

  1. Reheat the butter.

  2. Fry the slices of liver.

  3. Drain the liver slices well.

  4. Arrange the pheasant in a casserole or stewpan.

  5. Intermix slices of liver and truffle with the pheasant.

  6. Pour the sauce over the mixture.

  7. Garnish with fried bread.

  8. Serve hot.

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. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Pheasant + shallottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together89 recipes

    Shared aroma: geraniol (rose, geranium).

  5. Truffle + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Pheasant
Main protein that is roasted, then gently simmered in the sauce to become tender.
Butter
Carries flavour and adds richness, and browns the pheasant pieces when fried.
Brown sauce
Forms the body of the dish, coating the pheasant with a rich, savoury base.
Goose liver
Adds a rich, creamy texture and deep savoury flavour to the finished dish.
Madeira or marsala wine
Adds acidity and sweetness, deepening the sauce's flavour as it simmers.
Shallots
Add a mild, sweet aromatic base when fried with the pheasant.

The step that matters

Fry the liver slices briefly and drain them well. Liver cooks quickly and turns grainy and tough if overcooked. Draining removes excess fat so the slices stay clean-flavoured and do not make the sauce greasy.

“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.

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