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Pheasant, Stuffed and Roasted

Pick, draw, and singe the pheasant, truss it as for roasting, and fill it with a forcemeat prepared as follows. Wash the liver of the bird, and fry it in hot fat until it is done enough; mince it finely, pound it in a mortar, and mix with it two table-spoonfuls of grated bread-crumbs, a dessert-spoonful of finely-minced ham, three mushrooms chopped small, a minced shallot, a tea-spoonful of chopped parsley, a little pepper and salt, and half an ounce of fresh butter. Mix these ingredients thoroughly, and bind them together with the yolk of an egg. Cover the breast of the bird with thin slices of fat bacon tied on securely with twine, and roast before a clear fire. When it is done enough, serve the pheasant on a hot dish, with a sauce, prepared as follows, in a tureen. Put a table-spoonful of olive-oil into a stewpan with six raw button mushrooms, a clove of garlic, two shallots, and half a tea-spoonful of capers, all finely minced. Add four cloves, a bay-leaf, a small sprig of thyme, another of parsley, and half a tea-spoonful of peppercorns, and stir these over a gentle fire for five or six minutes. Pour over these ingredients two table-spoonfuls of stock and a glassful of sherry, and simmer very gently for fifteen minutes. Remove the cloves, the herbs, and the garlic, pour in two spoonfuls more of stock, simmer five minutes longer, and skim the sauce carefully. Rub it through a fine hair-sieve, add a dessert-spoonful of lemon-juice, heat the sauce once more, and it is ready for serving. If preferred, three or four tomatoes may be added to this sauce. They should be simmered with the other ingredients until they can be pressed through a sieve. Time to roast the pheasant, three-quarters of an hour or more, according to the size; three-quarters of an hour to prepare the sauce. Probable cost of pheasants, 3s. each, when plentiful. Sufficient for three or four persons.