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Pheasant, Roasted

Roasted pheasant stuffed with beefsteak and bacon, served with watercress, brown gravy, bread sauce, and fried breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Watercress and pepper work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 983 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pheasant, Roasted

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Pluck and draw the pheasant.

  2. Truss it like a roast chicken, leaving the head on.

  3. Stuff the beefsteak inside the pheasant to enhance flavor and moisture.

  4. Cover the breast with thin slices of bacon or lard it with strips of fat bacon.

Roast

  1. Roast in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 40 to 50 minutes, basting frequently with butter.

  2. When three-quarters cooked, remove the bacon.

  3. Dredge the breast lightly with flour.

  4. Baste well for a golden appearance.

  5. Remove the trussing strings.

Serve

  1. Serve on a hot dish garnished with well-washed, dried, and seasoned watercress.

  2. Serve brown gravy, bread sauce, and fried breadcrumbs separately.

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. Watercress + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together983 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Pheasant + watercresstop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together23 recipes

    Shared aroma: geraniol (rose, geranium).

  3. Pheasant + peppertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together462 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

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

What each ingredient does

Beefsteak
Stuffed inside the bird, it adds moisture and flavor as it cooks.
Bacon
Covering the breast, it shields lean meat from drying and bastes it with rendered fat.
Flour (in the method)
Dredged lightly over the breast, it helps the skin brown and turn golden.
Butter (in the method)
Basting with butter adds fat that promotes browning and a rich flavor.

The step that matters

Removing the bacon at three-quarters cooked. Removing the bacon at the right point lets the breast brown and turn golden. Leaving it on too long can stop browning, while removing it too early leaves the lean breast exposed to drying.

“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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