In autumn people always used to change their diet: they were eating less fresh fruit and vegetables, replacing them with heavy meals with high nutritive value, thick soups, pickled vegetables and – last but not least – venison. Especially richer bourgeois families used to prepare venison fairly frequently. Famous Czech cookery book by M. D. Rettigová contains a large variety of different recipes to prepare pheasant, partridge, wild duck, grouse, as well as hare or doe. After 1918, French cuisine spread in the newly established independent Czechoslovakia, with traditional cookery book by Rettigová started to be replaced by more up-to date Book of Budget and Recipes (Kniha rozpočtů a kuchařských předpisů) by Marie Janků-Sandtnerová. Published for the first time in 1925, it became so popular to have seen more than 70 editions until now. However, it includes only one pheasant recipe.
Venison has always played an important role for Czech cuisine – and no wonder, in a country characterized by numerous forests and meadows abounding in game. It is a real shame that we made it disappear from our tables and replaced it with sauces and goulash, taking these for traditional Czech meals, the more despite venison availability all year round, compared to just few months in the past!
In addition to its delicious taste, pheasant meat is also high in nutrients, being very low in fat and rich in antioxidants. Moreover, as pheasants spend most of their lives in forests and fields, their meat can be taken for organic!
Procedure
If you have the whole pheasant, skin it, clean, wash and divide in portions. Lard the meat, cutting the remaining bacon in small pieces. Clean and cut parsley, carrot, celery root and onions, placing them together with the bacon at the bottom of the casserole. Add bay leaf, allspice and pepper corns (preferably in a tea strainer or wrapped in a gauze to be easily removed after baking).
Salt and pepper the meat, place on top of the vegetables and cover with slices of butter. Sprinkle with thyme and baste with 300 ml of wine and half of the broth. Put in the oven preheated at 1800°C.
After 20 minutes baste again and cover with aluminium to stew the meat. Roast for another 40‑45 minutes, basting with white wine and broth if necessary.
Pheasant tastes best when served with potato dumplings or with mashed potatoes and cabbage, but it might as well be eaten just with fresh bread. Do not forget to pour with gravy and vegetables!
Extra tip:
For the best preparation, pheasant must be let sit for some time, therefore, when buying one, always ask how long time it has been hanging.
Pheasant meat when skinned instead of deplumed, is then more exposed to get dry, therefore it has to be stewed. However, if you do not fear depluming it, you can then roast the meat.