thisweekLogin

A period dish

Roast Pheasant

A pheasant larded with bacon and roasted, basted with butter and served with its own juices.

Serves 4

Pheasant was the bird of the autumn hunt and the aristocratic table. Lean and dry, it needed larding and frequent basting, and it was often served with a sauce sharpened with verjuice or lemon.

Ingredients

Produce

  • 1 bunch thyme

Meat & Poultry

  • 3 lb pheasant
  • 4 slice bacon

Dairy & Eggs

  • 3 tbsp butter

Spices & Seasoning

  • salt

Other

  • 1/2 cup wine
  • 2 tbsp verjuice

Method

  1. Pluck and draw the pheasant, reserving the giblets, and truss it.

  2. Lard the breast with strips of fat bacon and season the bird inside and out.

  3. Roast it in a hot oven or on a spit, basting with butter and the pan drippings.

  4. After thirty minutes lower the heat and continue until the juices at the thigh run clear.

  5. Deglaze the pan with wine and a little verjuice, strain the sauce, and serve it with the carved bird.

View a published recipe at Epicurious (opens in a new tab)

Served at

After the Pazzi conspiracy · Florence, Italy

The garden at San Marco · Florence, Italy

A commonwealth imagined · London, England