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Pheasant's Legs, Devilled
These must be prepared some hours in advance. With a sharp knife take the skin off the legs, and score the flesh twice crosswise on each side of the bone. Melt two ounces of butter, and mix with it a dessert-spoonful of salt, a tea-spoonful of pepper, a pinch of cayenne, a spoonful of made mustard, and half a tea-spoonful of essence of anchovy. Spread this mixture on the legs, getting it in between the scores as much as possible. Put a cover over the legs, and leave them in a cool place for some hours. When they are about to be wanted, lay them on a gridiron which has been rubbed over with a piece of mutton fat, and put them over a gentle fire. Broil slowly, turning them every minute. Serve on a very hot dish, with a little melted butter poured over them.
A classic Victorian devil: a fierce paste worked into scored meat, left to sit, then grilled slowly. The seasoning quantities are written for a whole bird's worth of legs and for palates used to a much saltier table.
- Start with cooked legsProbably cooked legs -- the recipe does not say, but devils were a common use for the previous day's roast game, and already-cooked legs suit the brief, gentle broiling described here. Raw pheasant legs are tough and sinewy; if you are starting from raw, braise or confit them first, then chill, score and devil them.
- Scale the salt downA dessert-spoonful is two teaspoons, and with a teaspoon of pepper it is a great deal of seasoning for two or four legs. Halve the salt for a modern palate, and remember that anchovy essence and mustard both bring salt of their own.
- Made mustard"Made" means mixed and ready, not mustard powder. English mustard from a jar is the closest thing; Dijon works but is milder and sweeter.
- Essence of anchovyA thin bottled anchovy extract, once on every sideboard. Substitute anchovy paste from a tube, or a few drops of Worcestershire sauce, which contains anchovy and was already doing the same job in Victorian devils.
- The gridironA ridged grill pan over medium heat, or a barbecue at the point where the coals have greyed over, reproduces a "gentle fire" better than an overhead broiler. Rubbing the bars with mutton fat is simply greasing them; any hard fat or oil will do.
- Slow and turned oftenThis is the hinge. The paste is butter, mustard and cayenne, all of which scorch fast, so the point of the gentle fire and the turn every minute is to heat the meat through and crisp the surface without burning the coating. Reckon on 10 to 15 minutes for cooked legs.
- The resting timeThe "some hours" in a cool place is not marinating in any deep sense; the butter sets in the scores and holds the seasoning against the meat during grilling. Overnight in the fridge is fine, but bring the legs back towards room temperature before they go on the heat.
- Yield and servingTwo pheasants give four legs, enough for two as a savoury course or a hot breakfast dish. Serve them very hot with the melted butter, and a watercress salad or plain toast to take the mustard.
Devilling — coating meat in mustard, cayenne and something sharp, then grilling it — was a mainstay of the English breakfast and supper table through the nineteenth century, and its main purpose was to make cold roast meat worth eating again. Legs and wings were the natural candidates: on a roast pheasant the breast is carved for dinner and the legs, darker and more sinewy, are left behind, so a devil turns over the least prized part of the bird. The culinary use of "devil" is recorded from the late eighteenth century, and devilled bones and kidneys became a fixture of club and sporting-house cookery in the nineteenth; the flavourings here — English mustard, cayenne and anchovy essence — are typical of that style.