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3551. Macnas - 1/24/2006 12:16:44 PM Last night, pheasant stuffed with sage, onion, some garlic, wensleydale & cranberry cheese. Topped off with some bacon rashers.
I'm still stuffed. 3552. Magoseph - 1/24/2006 2:52:42 PM I’m curious about where the pheasant came from and whether or not you had a local wine with this scrumptious meal, Mac.
3553. PelleNilsson - 1/24/2006 2:58:56 PM I'm quite sure that Macnas shot it over the weekend. Local wine? You mean Irish wine? Maybe it exists, but I doubt it. Not enough sun on that rain-drenched island.
I've only had pheasant twice and both times I found the meat dry and disappointing. Comments, Macnas? 3554. wonkers2 - 1/24/2006 5:50:46 PM Pheasant can be dry if not prepared properly. We've had it the past two Christmases and it was not dry. My wife and oldest son researched pheasant preparation at some length and spent a lot of time preparing and cooking the birds. I didn't pay enough attention to attempt to explain how they did it. Turkey can also be dry if overcooked. 3555. Macnas - 1/25/2006 10:35:53 AM Mago
The pheasant came from a hedgerow about a mile from my old home place. The morning was very cold and frost covered the land, so he was a bit tardy in getting off roost, as we all are when it's cold outside.
This gave me a little more time to get to where I thought he might be before he decided to take off across the river to feed. I was right and there he was, the dog putting him out and up in great style.
That was last Saturday the 14th, so it was hanging for just under a week before I dressed it. I could see from the empty crop that he hadn't eaten that morning, which means I was just in time and in another minute or so he would not have been there.
I forget the red wine my brother and I had with the bird, but it was something from South America I think, and very nice too. As Pelle supposes, the climate here does not support growing grapes on the vine, so hence the dearth of Irish wine.
Very little drama this season compared to the first bird of the previous, about which I wrote, roundabout this time last year.
And yes, pheasant has very little fat and can dry out quickly if roasted like chicken. Chicken is all but self basting, being much fattier, and though wild, duck is famously greasy.
All I do is make sure that there enough things with the pheasant while its being cooked that will prevent it from drying out too much. The selection of these ingredients is sport in and of itself. But if you want an easy pheasant, just make a casserole of it. Use red wine, shallots, bacon, your favourite herbs, some mushrooms and the like. Cook it slow 'till its nice and falling apart and you'll eat your fingers with it. Experiment with cream, or redcurrent jam, or maybe some port.
We had some woodcock the week before, stuffed with blackpudding and apple, covered with smoky bacon. Gorgeous is the only word. If I didn't do so much cross-country walking during the season I'd be as fat as a fool.
3556. alistairconnor - 1/25/2006 11:07:49 AM Wonk : Oh, so you're the pheasant plucker's father? I should have guessed. 3557. RickNelson - 1/25/2006 3:10:58 PM I've missed Pelle giving the picture answer, and I don't see it upon review.
Are we still waiting? 3558. wonkers2 - 1/25/2006 3:31:34 PM My oldest son has taken up skeet shooting and pheasant hunting using my venerable Model 12 Winchester pump gun which has been moldering unused for some years in our basement. I believe I heard yesterday on the radio that Winchester folded recently. 3559. thoughtful - 1/25/2006 4:03:12 PM blackpudding? whats that? 3560. Magoseph - 1/25/2006 5:20:30 PM Rick,
Are we still waiting?
Message # 3535
3536. robertjayb - 1/22/2006 11:48:26 AM
Fourth from the left in the middle row, directly in front of the tall person with lots of hair.
Thank you, Mac. 3561. robertjayb - 1/25/2006 5:25:44 PM wonkers2,
I enjoyed this paean to the Model 12. I never owned one but got to hunt with a couple belonging to relatives. They got it right with Model 12... 3562. wonkers2 - 1/25/2006 5:49:19 PM RJB, Thanks! The serial # on mine is 878578. It was probably made in the middle or late 1930s. It was my dad's gun. It still works perfectly if aimed correctly! 3563. Macnas - 1/25/2006 6:39:26 PM Winchester are going to shut up shop, a buyer might be found for the works but nobody has come forward yet.
Pity, a part of America is Winchester. 3564. Macnas - 1/25/2006 6:40:58 PM Thoughtful,
Black pudding is what we call blood pudding. Thickened pigs blood, some oats and spices.
Sublime. 3565. thoughtful - 1/25/2006 6:57:25 PM ok, what i thought...not my thing
3566. Magoseph - 1/25/2006 7:04:12 PM We ate what we called Boudin when I was a kid and I loved it then--I couldn't eat it now, though. 3567. PelleNilsson - 1/25/2006 7:48:46 PM My wife likes blood pudding but I refuse it. She only gets to have it when I'm away. The reverse applies to Argentine corned beef which I sometimes revel in when she's away. 3568. Marc-Albert - 1/25/2006 10:25:54 PM I guess it's all a matter of being used to the thing from an early age. My mother would serve blood pudding ('boudin', as Mag calls it) fairly regularly, as well as beef kidney for instance. So I buy blood pudding from time to time and less frequently veal, beef or lamb kidney whole, that I clean up and cut with scissors. Some friends will almost have a cardiac arrest just looking at me manipulating the viscous thing.
OTOH, we never ate cervelles (brain) in my familly, so, to this day, I'm rather squeamish about it, very rarely ordering it in restaurant and never buying it to prepare myself. 3569. Marc-Albert - 1/26/2006 12:51:10 AM 
I thought you guys would love this one just before supper. Somewhere in France, country-style blood pudding and blood donor's clinic ads.
3570. arkymalarky - 1/26/2006 5:37:26 AM Boudin is blood pudding? That's a Cajun food that I had once a long time ago. It was awful, but it was spoiled. I don't know what it tastes like when it's not spoiled, but people say it's great.
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