Vera's Recipes

Meats – Poultry

The Sportsman's Cook Book: Snipe, Doves & Pheasant

Meats – Poultry
1 ingredients
Print 3″×5″ card Print 4″×6″ card

Ingredients

  • see individual game-bird recipes in the steps below

Method

  1. ROAST SNIPE — Butter the snipe well and cover with a piece of fat back or barding pork. Roast on a rack in a 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes, basting well with melted butter and red wine, half and half. Season to taste. Serve on fried toast with pan juices; chip potatoes and watercress are good with this. (One snipe is hardly enough; two make a better portion. Snipe are dressed like woodcock: heads skinned and beaks skewered through the birds.)
  2. DOVES COUNTRY STYLE — Ingredients: flour; 6 doves; 6 rashers bacon; salt, pepper; 1 1/2 cups heavy cream; 2 teaspoons chopped parsley. Flour the birds lightly. Try out the bacon in a large skillet; remove and keep warm. Saute the doves in the bacon fat, browning them well on all sides. Reduce the heat and continue cooking until they are just tender, about 12 minutes. Season to taste. Remove the doves to a hot platter and garnish with the bacon. Spoon out all but 3 tablespoons of fat. Add 4 tablespoons flour and blend well. Cook 3 minutes. Gradually stir in the cream and cook, stirring, until smooth and thickened. Season with salt and pepper and add the parsley. Serve in a sauceboat. Serves 3-6.
  3. PHEASANT SAUTE WITH APPLES — Ingredients: 2 young pheasants; flour; butter; 1/3 cup Calvados or applejack; salt, pepper; 1/2 cup white wine; 1 cup heavy cream beaten with 3 egg yolks; 6 apples, thinly sliced; 2 teaspoons sugar. Cut the breasts in two and remove the center breast bone. Flour each piece. Saute very gently in 6-8 tablespoons butter until a rich ivory color (not golden brown). Flame with Calvados or applejack and turn once or twice in the juices. Salt and pepper to taste and add the white wine. Simmer 8-10 minutes, until just tender (do not overcook or the breast will be dry). Remove the pheasant to a hot platter and add a few drops of Calvados to the pan. Slowly stir in the cream-and-egg-yolk mixture and cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until the sauce is smooth and thickened; do not let it boil. Pass separately in a sauceboat. Garnish the platter with sliced apples sauteed in 6 tablespoons butter and sprinkled with the sugar to glaze them. The legs and thighs may be floured and sauteed in butter and added to the platter. Serves 4.
  4. ROAST PHEASANT — Truss the birds and place them on their sides on a rack in a shallow pan. Lay strips of bacon or salt pork across the breasts, legs and thighs. Roast in a 375 degree oven for 18 minutes. Turn the pheasants onto the other side and cover with bacon or salt pork. Baste with the pan juices or with melted butter and roast 15 minutes more. Place the birds on their backs and baste well. Cover with bacon or pork strips and roast an additional 10 minutes. Remove the bacon or pork, baste again and return to the oven for a few minutes to brown. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with squares of fried hominy grits or polenta, the pan juices, and perhaps sauteed or fried salsify.
  5. BROILED PHEASANT — Young pheasants may be split and broiled as you would chicken. They will take about 25 minutes to cook and should be well basted with butter. Serve with crisp fried potatoes and asparagus, or in the autumn broccoli.
  6. FRICASSEE OF OLD PHEASANT — Ingredients: flour; 1 or 2 old pheasants, cut up for fricassee; 6 tablespoons butter; 1 1/2 cups chicken or pheasant broth; 1 onion stuck with cloves; 1 1/2 teaspoons salt; 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 1 teaspoon thyme; 1 bay leaf; beurre manie; 1 cup heavy cream; 1/4 cup sherry or Madeira. Flour the pheasant pieces lightly and saute in butter until just delicately colored. Do not brown. Add the broth, onion and seasonings and bring to a boil. Cover the pan, lower the heat and simmer 45 minutes to 1 1/4 hours, or until tender. Do not overcook. Remove the pheasant to a hot platter. Correct the seasoning and remove the onion and bay leaf. Thicken the broth with beurre manie and stir in the heavy cream and sherry or Madeira. Simmer until the sauce is a good consistency.

Notes

Two facing pages of "The Sportsman's Cook Book" (House & Garden, October 1964) on cooking wild game birds. Several recipes on one clipping.

Original card

The recipe above was transcribed from this scan of Vera’s original card.