TRUSS the pheasants as for boiling, braize them in a wine mirepoix (No. 236), and when done, take them up, draw the strings, and allow them to get partially cold; then cover them entirely with some reduced Allemande sauce which has been mixed with the mirepoix the pheasants have been braized in (this, previously to its being boiled down for the purpose of adding it to the sauce, must be freed of all the grease, &c.). This coating of sauce should be allowed to cool, and then must be breadcrumbed over with grated Parmesan cheese mixed with the bread-crumbs in equal proportions. The pheasants must now be placed in a deep sautapan or pie-dish, previously well buttered, and the remaining half of the braize added to moisten the bottom of the pan. Three quarters of an hour before dinner-time, sprinkle the pheasants with a little clarified butter, and set them in the oven to be baked of a very light fawn colour—frequently basting them with clarified butter while baking. When done, dish them up side by side, garnish round with a border of quenelles of polenta, pour a brown Italian sauce (No. 12) under them, and serve.
The quenelles of polenta above alluded to should be thus made:
Put into a small stew-pan six ounces of butter, half-a-pint of water, a little mignonette pepper and salt; set these on the fire to boil, and then mix in with them six ounces of polenta (a preparation of Indian corn); stir this again over the fire until it becomes a smooth compact paste, and then work in with it two whole eggs and two yolks, and two ounces of grated Parmesan cheese. Shape this composition into quenelles with two table-spoons in the usual manner, and poach them in hot water.