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Devilled Legs of Pheasant

Spiced pheasant legs marinated in butter, salt, pepper, mustard, anchovy paste, then grilled over mutton fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Devilled Legs of Pheasant

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 in the salt, pepper, cayenne, mustard, and anchovy paste.

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

  4. Cover the legs and refrigerate overnight.

Cook and serve

  1. Grease a hot gridiron with mutton fat.

  2. Place the legs on the greased gridiron.

  3. Broil the legs slowly over gentle heat, turning them every minute until cooked through.

  4. Serve the legs on a hot dish with hot plates.

  5. Pour a little melted butter over the legs before serving.

  6. Optionally, sprinkle the legs with more pepper.

  7. Optionally, serve with grill sauce.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Anchovy + muttontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Pheasant legs
Provide the meat that is cooked through over gentle heat after being scored.
Butter
Carries the seasonings into the meat and adds richness and moisture while broiling.
Mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavour that complements the rich meat.
Anchovy paste
Adds savoury depth and umami to the seasoning coating.

The step that matters

Broil slowly over gentle heat, turning every minute. Pheasant meat is lean and dries out quickly. Gentle heat and frequent turning cook the legs through evenly while limiting surface scorching and moisture loss, so the meat stays tender.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pheasant, butter, pepper, anchovy, mutton, sauce. 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.

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