Important: Safety Warning
This page describes collecting wild birds' eggs, shooting birds for specimens, or similar practices. These activities are now illegal under wildlife-protection laws, including the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and they contributed to the decline of the very species described.
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This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
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Pheasant Mulligan
2 YOUNG PHEASANTS 2 CUPS DICED CARROTS I CUP FINELY SHREDDED CABBAGE I CUP DICED ONIONS 2 TABLESPOONS BUTTER 2 CUPS DICED POTATOES SALT AND PEPPER Pluck, clean and join pheasants when the game warden isn't looking. Cover with water, add carrots, cabbage and onions and simmer slowly until tender. Then put in your butter, potatoes and seasoning and cook until potatoes are done.
Potatoes go into any stew last because they're so heavy they sink to the bottom and are likely to scorch or cook mushy if piled in with the other vegs.
A 5 gallon gasoline can or a big syrup pail with a strong handle makes a good mulligan tin, so you don't have to spoil any kitchen kettle with a campfire blackout.
To cook a mulligan right you must do it not only in your shirt sleeves, but with the sleeves rolled well above the elbow and held in place by a pair of elastic sleeve bands, preferably purple in color. There is no limit to what goes into a good mulligan, but remember if you're using beans that they, like potatoes, should go in toward the finish, so they won't sink to the bottom and scorch up the whole stew. Use the juice from olive bottles and the oil from sardine and anchovy cans in any camp stew. Lemons and olives are good to savor them at the finish.
Besides being favored by jungle transients and Ford families, mulligans are esteemed by all hunters "out where the West-"; especially when they're flossied up with dumplings cooked right in the stew (see recipes under Dumplin's). And hot biscuits are not to be sneezed at with any kind of mulligan-or pepper pot.
A camp stew built around two whole birds and whatever else is in the outfit. The only fixed rules are the order the vegetables go in and the fact that wild pheasant is far leaner and tougher than anything sold at a market.
- "Join" the birdsThis means jointing — cutting each bird into serving pieces at the leg, thigh and wing joints, with the breast split. Bone-in pieces are what give the broth its body.
- Cooking time for wild birdsThe recipe simply says to simmer until tender. A genuinely young wild pheasant may need around 45 minutes at a bare simmer; an older bird can take an hour and a half or more before the leg meat gives. Farmed pheasant, which is what a modern cook is most likely to find, tends to be quicker. Keep it just below a boil or the breast turns to string.
- Add the potatoes when the meat is nearly doneThe original is right about this, and it is the hinge of the dish. Diced potatoes need only 15 to 20 minutes; in from the start they disintegrate and the starch settles and scorches on a fire-heated bottom.
- ShotAny bird taken with a shotgun may carry pellets. Run your fingers over the pieces before they go in the pot, and warn whoever is eating.
- Not a gasoline canDisregard the fuel-can suggestion entirely. A can that has held petrol keeps residue in its seams that no fire will burn clean, and old tinware of this sort may have lead-soldered seams. Use a cast-iron Dutch oven or a stainless stockpot; either handles a campfire without complaint.
- The brine and oil trickOlive brine and the oil from sardine or anchovy tins do add depth, but they are all salt and anchovy. Add them at the end, taste, and hold back on the seasoning salt until you have.
- Water and yield"Cover with water" comes to roughly 2 to 3 quarts for two birds. Two pheasants with the vegetables serve six generously; wild birds dress out small, so count on less meat per person than a chicken of the same apparent size.
- Sourcing the birdsFarmed pheasant is sold by game butchers and online and is a fair substitute. Wild birds require a hunting licence and an open season — the line about the game warden is a joke, not a method.