[Sca-cooks] Pheasants?

[Stefan li Rous]

Eirene asked:
> A lady over on another list (aotc) has come into a bunch of pheasant
> feathers, and is asking about uses in 14th-15th century clothing. She
> has located visual sources from the 16th century, so they were
> apparently available late in our period.
>
> The question is, when were they imported?
>
> I don't recall any recipes for pheasant in the
> corpus, but I haven't done anything like an exhaustive study.
>
> What's the history in Europe?

 From this file in the FOOD-MEATS section of the Florilegium:
birds-recipes-msg (24K) 10/17/04    Bird recipes. Squabs, pheasants,  
quail.

 >>>>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 16:20:17 -0500
From: Ceridwen <ceridwen at ccgnv.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Pheasant recipe

 > I just spent some time looking through the Miscellany and the  
Florilegium.
 > I was looking for some recipes on how to cook game birds, pheasant in
 > particular.
 >
 > Any period sources or recipes would be helpful.
 >
 > Avelina Keyes

In looking through His Grace's Collection, I found a few. I'm neither a
good nor patient typist, so will give you a couple to start with.

Ceridwen (ceridwen at ccgnv.net)

 From "A Text on Portuguese Cooking from the Fifteenth Century"
"Tigelada de perdiz (pheasant casserole)
     Take an undercooked pheasant and cut it in pieces. Seperately, in a
casserole dish, make a sauce with oil or butter, diced onions, cloves,
pepper and saffron.
     Roll pheasant pieces in flour and then arrange in pan with the  
sauce.
Take vinegar mixed with water and add to the pan with the pheasant, till
half-full. Add salt to taste. Cook on a medium flame."

 >From "A Noble Boke off Cookry ffor a Prynce Houssolde" (late 15th C.?)
     "Ffessand or Pertuche:
     To boile fessand or pertuche tak good brothe put there in your  
fessand or
pertuche and put ther to ale, flour pepper, canelle,guinger,and  
saffron and
boile it well and salt it and serve it forthe with pouder douce."


Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1998 02:51:51 -0600
From: allilyn at juno.com (LYN M PARKINSON)
Subject: Re: SC - Pheasant recipe

Eleonora Maria Rosalia.  Freiwillig aufgesprungner Granat-Apffel.
Hausmettel and kochrezepte von 1709.  (taken from a hand-written
recipe book of the 16th C.)
(in Gerrman).  Working on translation.

The roast pheasant recipe says to lard the pheasant, cover with bacon,
and roast.  Serve warm with the the feathers in the wings.

A modern German cookbook cooks the bird at 350* for 30 minutes, first
rubbing the bird inside and out with butter, lemon juice and salt.   
Cover
the bird with bacon.  After the 30 min., discard the bacon, turn up oven
to 400*, baste with chicken stock with spices and herbs, Roast for 30
minutes more.  The juices of the inner thigh should run clear and  
yellow.
  If not, roast for 5-10 minutes more, basting occasionlly.


Renfrow, Cindy.  Take a Thousand Eggs Or More.  A Collection of 15th
Century Recipes.  Vol. I & II.  1991 Privately   printed.

In Vo. II, Pheasant roasted.  Let a pheasant bleed in the mouth, and let
him bleed to death; & pull him, and draw him, & cut away the neck by the
body, & the legs by the knee, & parboil him, & lard him, and put the
knees in the vent; and roast him, & raise him up, his legs & his wings,
as of a hen; & no sauce but salt.

That's from Douce MS. 55.  Harleian MS. 4016 says his sauce is Sugar and
mustard.


Before finding the SCA, I used to do an oven braised pheasant, but
haven't had game for a while.

Allison
allilyn at juno.com, Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands,  
Pittsburgh, PA
Kingdom of Aethelmearc


...  From _The Forme of Cury_, 1378 Compiled and updated by Maxime
de la  Falaise in _Seven Centuries of English Cooking_ Grove Press,1992.

  Farsed Fesaunt - Pheasant Stuffed with Spiced Apples

   Mix basil, rosemary, thyme, and salt with the oats. Preheat oven to
   375 degrees F. Mix in dried apples and figs. Stir stock into oats and
   fruit. Stuff bird with mixture. Rub skin with butter. Bake at 375
   degrees F for 2 hours or until very tender. Grate apple peel and
   reserve. Remove core and discard. Chop or cut raw apple into small
   slivers and mix well with apple peel. Squeeze lemon juice onto apple
   to prevent its browning. Remove stuffing from bird. Mix in raw apples
   and serve immediately with warm fowl. ...


Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 23:55:15 -0500
From: harper at idt.net
Subject: SC - Recipe: stewed turkey with fruit

As I've mentioned before, Granado (1599) has a few recipes for
"pollos de las Indias", which AFAIK, is turkey.  Here's one.  It's out
of the section on cooking for invalids, hence the reference to the
doctor.


Para sudar, y estufar perdizes, y faysanes
To sweat, and to stew partridges and pheasants

Take the pheasant, or the partridge, which should not be old or
rancid, and clean their insides, cutting off the head, and the feet,
and pass it through boiling water, or through the coals; take a
copper pot, well tinned, or of glazed earthenware, with a bone from
a calf or cow made into pieces, which has marrow, which is done
to give it flavor; put in enough water to cover it three fingers deep,
with a splinter of whole cinnamon, and a good deal of salt, and a
few pieces of quince, and prunes, and dried cherries; and make it
boil with the cover very well sealed, but before sealing it, you can
put in half a cup of wine of San Martin, or another which is good,
with a little vinegar, and sugar, all according to the order which the
doctor directs, and cook it over the coals, far from the flames.  In
this manner you can also cook the pullet of the Indies, and our
ordinary pullets, and any good bird.


Notes: "wine of San Martin" probably refers to wine from the
vineyards of San Martin de Valdeiglesias, near Madrid.  It was very
highly regarded in this period.  I have seen wine of San Martin
called for in period recipes that suggest a sweet white as an
alternative.  If quinces are no longer available, perhaps a tart apple
like a Granny Smith will do?

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)


Pheasant is mentioned in this file in the FOOD section as well:
hollopotrida-msg  (28K)  1/23/05    Period holopotrida recipes. Stews  
with a
                                        very wide variety of  
ingredients.

Since the search engine got 110 hits for "pheasant" across a number  
of files, I assume there are least several more period recipes for  
pheasant given in the Florilegium.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****