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Pheasant, Roast

A roasted pheasant stuffed with beefsteak, bacon, and served with gravy, bread sauce, and fried breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Watercress and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 340 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Pheasant, Roast

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 the bird

  1. Pluck and draw the pheasant, truss it like a roast chicken, leaving the head on.

  2. Place the beefsteak inside the pheasant to enhance flavor and moisture.

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

Roast and baste

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

  2. Three‑quarters of the way through cooking, remove the bacon, dredge the breast lightly with flour, and baste well for a nice brown appearance.

Serve

  1. Remove the trussing strings, 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 + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together340 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: geraniol (rose, geranium).

  3. Pheasant + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together225 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  4. Bread + watercresstop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together307 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pheasant + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together239 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Pheasant
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked whole as a roast.
Beefsteak
Placed inside the bird to add moisture and flavor during roasting.
Bacon
Covers the breast to protect it from drying and adds savory fat.
Flour
Dusted on the breast to help it develop an even, golden-brown color.

The step that matters

Basting the breast after removing the bacon. Lean breast meat dries out quickly in dry oven heat. Basting with fat keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly once the protective bacon is removed.

“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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