Faisan à la Sainte-Alliance

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Digital kitchen scale
• •Narrow boning knife, if the game dealer has not boned the woodcocks
• •Mini food processor or large mortar and pestle
• •12-inch / 30 cm heavy skillet
• •High V-rack and shallow roasting pan with at least 2 inches / 5 cm clearance
• •Instant-read probe thermometer
• •Small heavy saucepan
• •Kitchen twine and trussing needle or metal skewer

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the game

   Ask the game dealer to bone the woodcocks and pack the meat, livers, and cleaned edible intestines separately. This is brigade scaffolding, not the soul of the dish. If you must do it yourself, keep the birds very cold and scrape the flesh from the tiny bones in pieces; it will be chopped, so perfect boning is unnecessary. Use only intact, fresh offal certified fit for eating, with the gall, grit, and shot-damaged tissue removed. Weigh the meat, then weigh out one-quarter as much marrow and one-quarter as much fatback. If the marrow is raw, poach it at a bare simmer for 3 minutes, chill it immediately, and dry it well.

2. 2

   Build the stuffing

   Melt 1 tablespoon butter over gentle heat, add the 6 ounces of quartered truffles, and turn them for 2 minutes without allowing them to brown. Cool completely. Chop the woodcock meat with the chilled marrow and diced fatback until you have a cohesive, coarse hash, not a smooth paste. Mix in the herbs, half the salt, half the pepper, and the cooled truffles with their butter. Fry a teaspoonful and taste it; correct the seasoning now, because once it is inside the pheasant, the argument is over.

3. 3

   Stuff and bard

   Dry the pheasant inside and out, then season it with the remaining salt and pepper. Pack the woodcock stuffing into the cavity without crushing it tight, close the opening with a skewer or kitchen twine, and truss the legs against the body. Barder means to wrap a lean bird in fat: overlap the thin fatback slices across the breast and thighs, then tie them securely. Cover and refrigerate at 40°F / 4°C or colder for 24 hours. That rest concentrates the truffle through the bird, and it is part of the dish, not idle ceremony.

   If a little stuffing remains, pack it into a buttered ramekin and bake it beside the pheasant until its centre reaches 165°F / 74°C. Never force excess stuffing into the cavity, because a packed centre cooks too slowly.
4. 4

   Set the oven

   Take the pheasant from the refrigerator 30 minutes before roasting. Heat the oven to 425°F / 220°C with a rack in the lower-middle position. Set a high V-rack, with at least 2 inches / 5 cm of clearance beneath it, inside a shallow roasting pan. Place the bird breast-side up on the rack. The raised rack is the honest home equivalent of the spit: the bird roasts in open heat, and later its juices can fall directly onto the croûton.

5. 5

   Begin the roast

   Roast the pheasant at 425°F / 220°C for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven to 375°F / 190°C and continue for 35 minutes. Turn the pan once if your oven browns unevenly, but do not baste; the barde is already doing that work. At this point the bird will be about two-thirds through its cooking, which is precisely when the croûton must go underneath.

6. 6

   Make the croûton

   While the pheasant roasts, heat the clarified butter in a 12-inch / 30 cm skillet. Fry the bread slab until deep gold and crisp on both faces, about 3 minutes per side, then drain it on a rack. Process or pound the reserved woodcock livers and cleaned intestines with an equal weight of grated fatback, the rinsed anchovy, softened butter, and raw grated truffle until perfectly smooth. If the mixture turns greasy because it became warm, stop and chill it for 10 minutes, then process again. Ça se rattrape. Spread the paste evenly over one face of the fried croûton, carrying it nearly to the edges.

7. 7

   Catch the juices

   After the pheasant has roasted for about 50 minutes, lift the rack and bird carefully onto a board. Pour the early pan drippings into a small saucepan, then set the coated croûton paste-side up on the floor of the roasting pan. Replace the rack so the croûton sits directly beneath the bird, and return everything to the oven. Roast for another 20 to 35 minutes, until the centre of the stuffing, the thickest part of the thigh, and the croûton paste each reach 165°F / 74°C. If the croûton darkens before the bird is safe, slide it onto a lower oven shelf and cover its edges loosely with foil. If the bird finishes first, remove it and give the croûton another few minutes alone. Ça se rattrape, and neither component need be sacrificed.

8. 8

   Reduce the jus

   While the final roasting finishes, add the stock to the reserved drippings and bring it to a lively simmer. Scrape in any sound browned sediment, skim away excess fat, and reduce to about ¾ cup / 180 ml, until the jus de rôti, the roasting gravy, runs glossy and lightly coats a spoon. If it becomes too salty from the fatback, dilute it with a spoonful of unsalted stock and reduce only enough to restore its body. Keep the jus warm without boiling it dry.

9. 9

   Rest and serve

   Rest the pheasant for 20 minutes, loosely covered, while the croûton remains warm. Transfer the croûton to a heated oval platter and set the pheasant directly upon it, removing any loose or pale barding. Surround the bird with thin bitter-orange slices and send the jus separately. Carve the pheasant into four portions, giving each person stuffing, one bitter-orange slice, and a small piece of the coated croûton soaked with the roasting juices. The orange is not decoration; its bitterness clears the palate for the next buttery bite. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Woodcock must be legally obtained, freshly dressed, and supplied with edible offal fit for cooking. In many places it may be hunted but not sold, so check the rules where you live. If proper woodcock is unavailable, choose another game recipe; squab and chicken liver may make a good roast, but they do not make Faisan à la Sainte-Alliance.
• •Weigh the boned woodcock meat. The source requires one-quarter its weight in poached marrow and the same weight in fresh fatback, and those ratios give the stuffing its tenderness without turning it greasy.
• •Six ounces of fresh truffle is extravagant because this is a celebration dish built around truffle, not merely scented with it. Reducing that amount changes its balance. Cook the dish when good fresh black truffles are available, or wait for their season.
• •The book's Croûtons are pieces of bread fried in butter. Here the word does not mean salad dice; it means one substantial slab broad enough to carry the pheasant and collect its juices.
• •Use a true bitter or sour orange, such as Seville orange. A sweet navel orange supplies perfume but not the bitterness that cuts the marrow, fatback, and truffle.
• •Pour a mature red Burgundy or an earthy red from the northern Rhône. The wine needs freshness and savoury depth, not heavy sweetness or oak.

Advance Preparation

• •Stuff, truss, and bard the pheasant exactly 24 hours before roasting, then keep it covered at 40°F / 4°C or colder. This rest is what carries the truffle aroma into both birds.
• •The bread can be cut and the butter clarified a day ahead. Keep the bread wrapped at room temperature and the clarified butter covered in the refrigerator, but fry and coat the croûton only while the pheasant roasts.
• •The stock may be prepared and chilled several days ahead. Keep it unsalted or very lightly salted, since the fatback and anchovy already season the roasting juices.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 480g)