salt and cayenne to taste.
_Mode_.--Cut the legs off at the first joint, and the remainder of the
bird into neat pieces; put them into a fryingpan with a little lard, and
when browned on both sides, and about half done, take them out and drain
them; brush the pieces over with egg, and sprinkle with bread crumbs
with which has been mixed a good seasoning of cayenne and salt. Broil
them over a moderate fire for about 10 minutes, or rather longer, and
serve with mushroom-sauce, sauce piquante, or brown gravy, in which a
few game-bones and trimmings have been stewed.
_Time_.--Altogether 1/2 hour. _Sufficient_ for 4 or 5 persons.
_Seasonable_ from the 1st of October to the beginning of February.
THE HEIGHT OF EXCELLENCE IN A PHEASANT.--Things edible have
their degrees of excellence under various circumstances: thus,
asparagus, capers, peas, and partridges are best when young.
Perfection in others is only reached when they attain maturity:
let us say, for example, melons and nearly all fruits (we must
except, perhaps, the medlar), with the majority of those animals
whose flesh we eat. But others, again, are not good until
decomposition is about to set in; and here we may mention
particularly the snipe and the pheasant. If the latter bird be
eaten so soon as three days after it has been killed, it then
has no peculiarity of flavour; a pullet would be more relished,
and a quail would surpass it in aroma. Kept, however, a proper
length of time,--and this can be ascertained by a slight smell
and change of colour,--then it becomes a highly, flavoured dish,
occupying, so to speak, the middle distance between chicken and
venison. It is difficult to define any exact time to "hang" a
pheasant; but any one possessed of the instincts of
gastronomical science, can at once detect the right moment when
a pheasant should be taken down, in the same way as a good cook
knows whether a bird should be removed from the spit, or have a
turn or two more.
TO DRESS PLOVERS.