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To Roast a Pheasant

A method for roasting a whole pheasant, basted with butter and served with gravy and bread sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Roast a Pheasant

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bird

  1. Pick and singe the pheasant clean.

  2. Cut a slit in the back of the neck.

  3. Remove the crop without cutting off the head and feet.

  4. Draw the pheasant.

  5. Wash the pheasant.

  6. Dry the pheasant.

  7. Turn the head under the wing.

  8. Skewer the wings to the body.

  9. Twist the feet closely to the body.

  10. Secure the feet with a skewer.

Stuff and roast

  1. Mix bread crumbs with salt and pepper for stuffing.

  2. Baste the pheasant thoroughly with butter.

  3. Roast over a clear fire for 1 hour.

  4. Serve with rich gravy and bread 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

  5. Pheasant + buttertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together511 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
Is the main protein, cooked whole so the meat sets and browns evenly.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavour and promotes browning on the roasted skin.
Bread crumbs
Form the stuffing, absorbing juices and adding a soft, mild texture.

The step that matters

Baste the pheasant thoroughly with butter. Lean game birds dry out easily in heat. Fat spooned over the surface keeps the skin moist and helps it brown evenly during roasting.

“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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