Boil the birds in abundance of water; if they are large, they will require three quarters of an hour; if small, about half an hour. For sauce—stewed white celery, thickened with cream, and a bit of butter rolled in flour; pour this over them.
Pheasant, with white sauce.
Truss the bird with the legs inward, (like a fowl for boiling); singe it well; take a little butter and the fat of some bacon, and fry the pheasant white; when sufficiently firm, take it out of the pan; then put a spoonful of flour into the butter; fry this flour white; next add a pint of veal or game jelly; put in a few mushrooms, if pickled to be well washed; cut small a bunch of parsley, a large onion, a little thyme, one clove, a pinch of salt, cayenne pepper, and a small lump of sugar; stew the bird in this sauce till done; this may be known by putting a fork into the flesh, and seeing that no blood issues out; then skim off the fat and drain the pheasant; then strain and boil the gravy in which it has been stewed; have ready a few mushrooms fried white in butter; then thicken the gravy with the yolk of four eggs and two table-spoonfuls of cream, throw in the mushrooms, place the pheasant in a hot dish, pour the sauce over it, and serve it up.
Pheasant à la Braise.
Put a layer of beef, the same of veal, at the bottom of the stewpan, with a thin slice of bacon, a little bit of carrot, an onion stuck with cloves, a bunch of sweet-herbs, some black and white pepper, and a little beaten mace, and put in your pheasant; put over it a layer of veal and the same of beef; set it on the fire for five or six minutes; then pour two quarts of boiling water, cover it down close, and put a damp cloth round the outside of the cover to prevent the steam escaping: it must stew gently for an hour and a half; then take up the pheasant and keep it hot, and let the gravy stew till reduced to about a pint; strain it off, and put it into a saucepan, with a sweetbread, which must have been stewed with the bird, some liver of fowls, morels, truffles, artichoke bottoms, and the tops of asparagus, and let these simmer in the gravy; add two spoonfuls of red wine and of ketchup, and a piece of butter rolled in flour; let them stew for five or six minutes: lay the pheasant in the dish, pour the ragout over it, and lay forcemeat balls round it.
Pheasant à l’Italienne.
Cut the liver small: and to one bird take but six oysters; parboil them, and put them into a stewpan with the liver, a piece of butter, some parsley, green onions, pepper and salt, sweet-herbs, and a little allspice; let them stand a little over the fire, and stuff the pheasant with them; then put it into a stewpan, with some oil, green onions, sweet basil, parsley, and lemon juice, for a few minutes; take them off, cover your pheasant with slices of bacon, and put it upon a spit, tying some paper round it while roasting. Then take some oysters, and stew them in their own liquor a little, and put in your stewpan four yolks of eggs, half a lemon cut in dice, a little beaten pepper, scraped nutmeg, parsley cut small, an anchovy cut small, a rocambole, a little oil, a small glass of white wine, a little of ham cullis; put the sauce over the fire to thicken, then put in the oysters, and make the sauce relishing, and, when the pheasant is done, lay it in the dish, and pour the sauce over it.
Pheasant, Puré of.
Chop the fleshy parts of a pheasant, the wings, breast, and legs, very fine, and pound them well in a mortar. Warm a pint of veal jelly, and stew the bird in it. Strain the whole through a sieve. Mix it all to the consistency of mashed potatoes. Serve in a dish with fried bread round it.