Cornelia van der Poll finds several ways to cook a pheasant and offers some delicious recipes.
The game season starts in August with grouse and moves on to partridge in September, but it is with the arrival of pheasants in butchers’ shops in October that autumn is properly here. Traditional recipes for pheasant recommend roasting or braising the whole bird, but the inconvenient fact is that what works for the breasts tends not to produce the best results with the legs. A grouse, mallard or partridge can be successfully roasted and served whole, but pheasant legs have too many tendons which get in the way. Pheasant breasts are a gift to the cook in a hurry. The breasts of a young bird can be fried and left to rest in the oven while the pan is deglazed with white wine. The breasts of an older bird are best cooked on the bone, either draped with rashers of streaky bacon, gently roasted in a not-too-hot oven for 40 minutes to an hour and served with a compote of fruit, or braised.
