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Pheasant, Hashed
Cut the remains of one or two cold roast pheasants into neat joints, put them into a cool place, and cover them over until they are wanted. Dissolve an ounce of butter in a stewpan, mix half an ounce of flour smoothly with it, and stir the mixture quickly over a gentle fire, until it is lightly coloured. Pour over it half a pint of stock or water, and add a glass of claret, a finely-minced onion, a bunch of parsley, a small sprig of thyme, a bay-leaf, and a little pepper and salt. Simmer the sauce gently by the side of the fire until it is thick enough to coat the spoon, then strain it, and put in the pieces of pheasant. Let these simmer for a minute or two until they are quite hot, but the sauce must not boil after the game is added. Serve the pheasant on a hot dish with the hot gravy poured over it. Time, one hour and a half. Probable cost, 4d., exclusive of the wine and cold meat. Sufficient for three or four persons.
A brown-sauce reheat for leftover roast game, built on a cooked roux. Almost all the stated hour and a half is the sauce simmering; the pheasant itself is in the pan for two minutes.
- Do not let it boilOnce the joints go into the strained sauce, keep it at the gentle simmer the recipe calls for and no higher; the text is explicit that the sauce must not boil after the game is added. The aim is to warm already-cooked meat through, not cook it again.
- Imperial measuresAn ounce of butter is 2 tablespoons; half an ounce of flour is a scant 2 tablespoons. Half an imperial pint is 10 fl oz, about 1¼ US cups. A "glass" of claret in this period is loosely 3-4 fl oz.
- ClaretClaret means dry red Bordeaux. Any dry, unoaked red of moderate tannin works; avoid anything jammy or heavily oaked, which turns bitter as the sauce reduces.
- The roux"Lightly coloured" is a blond-to-light-brown roux, three to five minutes over medium-low heat. Take it further than pale and the sauce browns nicely, but the flour loses thickening power, so watch consistency rather than the clock.
- StewpanA stewpan here is a wide, straight-sided saucepan. Any heavy 2-quart pan does; width helps the sauce reduce and coat the spoon.
- Stock, not waterThe recipe offers water as a fallback, but with only 2 tablespoons of butter and a little flour the sauce has nothing else to give it body. Use a good brown poultry or game stock, ideally made from the pheasant carcasses.
- The timingThe stated hour and a half is a total for the dish, not a breakdown; the recipe does not say how long the sauce should simmer, only that it should thicken enough to coat the spoon and then be strained. Judge by consistency on a modern hob rather than by the clock.
- Shot and yieldWild pheasant may still carry lead shot in the joints; check as you cut. The recipe reckons the remains of one or two birds enough for three or four, with potatoes or toast.
Hashes of this kind fill the back pages of Victorian cookery books because a large roast bird was expected to appear at least twice. Pheasant was game rather than market poultry in Britain, arriving through shooting estates and the game dealer between October and February, and the cookery books routinely recommend that a household which had one on Sunday make something presentable of the legs and wings afterwards. The 4d. costing, which explicitly excludes the wine and the meat, is the giveaway: the price covers only the butter, flour, stock and herbs, on the assumption that the pheasant is already paid for and sitting in the larder. The method itself is a plain brown sauce in the French manner, roux, liquid, wine, onion and a bouquet of parsley, thyme and bay, strained clear before the meat goes in, the sort of technique English cookery writing had absorbed thoroughly by the 1870s.