Mjx

PC's idea sounds really good (I have non-celiac issues with wheat); macarons are another great option.

Which sources have you found in your online searches, so far?

That's a shame, I would have expected travel insurance to pick that up. Of course, travel insurance isn't going to help when you have to cancel/reschedule a reservation in your home town because you're stuck in casualty waiting for the report on the x-ray of your arm, but I'm hoping that, at least when faced with concrete evidence of a legitimate reason for cancelling, most restaurants are reasonable. I've often wondered about this, in fact: What is the usual policy, when someone can't make it owing to accident/violent illness/etc, and provides incontrovertible proof of it?

I did (it doesn't always get everything up, but this time it was fine)... and I did!

Remarkably, this came out well; not just 'not dreadful', but really tasty and moist. And I have no idea how this happened: There was skin missing, the temperature seemed way, way too high, by rights, this should have been a desiccated ruin. I'd still love to hear what the rest of you do with pheasant, and how.

Don't know how I managed to miss mm84321's previous post on pheasant, which looks delicious. Roasted one tonight myself, and despite apparent impending disaster, it came out quite well. It looked a tad mummified, but was actually tender and juicy. The bird was one of the three here, but I don't know which: And here it is, about to go into the oven, and not looking very promising: I'm still stunned that it turned out really well, since I was preparing for brooding and self-flagellation on a grand scale

I'm getting a little discouraged. A number of roasting recipes recipes recommend starting the pheasant briefly at high temperature (230C°/450F°) then reducing the temperature (to 177C°/350F°), and roasting until the thigh registers 57C°/135F°. This inverts the process I use for roasting a chicken (one recipe claimed that the legs burn if the heat is higher at the end), but wasn't illogical, so I decided to give it a go. I rubbed olive oil over the outside, stuffed the cavity with fresh rosemary, draped the bird in a double layer of pancetta, popped it into the oven, and began washing up. I glanced at the temperature about ten minutes later, and was horrified to see that it had already hit 77C°/171F°. I yanked out the bird, and took a look. The surface wasn't particularly browned, notwithstanding the fact that the oven felt like a blast furnace. I poked the probe in one or two other places, and got mixed readings. I turned down the heat, turned off the hot air, and put the bird back in. I'm trying to look at this philosophically (I can always, I don't know, braise it afterwards? turn it into soup?), but I have a sinking feeling in my stomach about the outcome. On top of this, the only metal roasting pan has vanished, and the ceramic one I'm using cannot be deglazed on the stovetop, so I'm going to lose a lot of fond

I just unbagged the bird, and discovered that actually, most of the skin over the breast is missing (the bag was transluscent, and when I noticed some skin, I assumed it was all there) The only birds that have all their skin are the two I plucked, and they've been frozen for a holiday meal. Would it be taking chances to cover the breasts really well with pancetta, and roast? I think the one I've got is one of the younger birds (one of the two was really young, the spurs were still small), but I have to wait until my boyfriend's father is done with his trumpet lesson to ask.

I'm really grateful for the skin, but yeh, it takes ages to pluck: I should know, since I did the fine plucking on two of the birds. I'm trying to tak every measure possible to avoid drying the bird, particularly since its size is going to make it difficult to accurately place the probe of a thermometer, and the oven temperature is way off.

I definitely appreciate the advice about brining, since I was wondering about that, and how long the bird should be brined for, given its relatively small size. I've been thinking about tucking pancetta under the breast skin (may prove to be too fiddly to be workable, but seems like it might be worth at least trying), has anyone tried anything like that?

The bird is 770g/27oz (no feet or wings, since they were unfortunately trimmed away and discarded as garbage), so probably smaller than the bird recommended for the recipe, but I'd love to hear it, anyway... adaptation is always an option.

My boyfriend's father recently shot several pheasant, and we've been given one as a gift. It is presently sitting, cleaned and plucked, in our refrigerator. I've looked at a couple of other threads that discuss pheasant, but none seem to include any detailed, tested recipes; I love pheasant, and really want to do this one justice. I haven't got a sous-vide rig, so that isn't an option, but pretty much anything else is on the table.

How about a food mill? If you want a chunkier texture to your finished product, you might pick through the fruit by hand until you get bored, then put the rest through the food mill.

How did you do it? I'm always interested in different techniques.

I think this is more or less standard..? I'm not sure how else I'd do it.

I cut the vegetables into pieces that would more or less ft into a 2cm cube, toss them in olive oil, pepper, and a little salt, then roast them in a single layer, first under foil until the hardest of them may be pierced with a fork, then at high temperature with the foil removed (I can't take credit for this, beautifully as it works: it's one of the techniques CI gives for roasting potatoes). Some of the vegetables do take longer, but the ones that cook more quickly don't seem to suffer from being cooked longer than absolutely necessary, which is one of the nice things about root vegetables.

I'd explain the situation, and they may be very understanding. If they're difficult about things, tell them you'll be there, but would like to remind them that wiping up vomit is not the joy of the average waiter's life, nor do violent stomach upsets tend to add to pleasure of other diners. If the restaurant chooses to reschedule/cancel your reservation, they can't charge you for that.

As others have pointed out, just letting things go may be the happiest solution. Which dishes/types of dishes were you particularly concerned about, and how strictly traditional are your family's expectations likely to be? Often, if there's turkey squatting at the centre of everything else, a good fifty percent of people feel that things are 'right', but this does vary.

Has anyone else had any difficulty finding some form of salt cod where they live? In Denmark, it had a long tradition (and is called klipfisk), but asking where to find it has so far drawn alarmed/amused looks, as though I'd shoved a heaping tablespoonful of hákarl the person's face, rather than asked a question (usually, an elaboration of its appalling smell, etc. follows).

The ragù bolognese, over pasta: We couldn't find pappardelle – hard to find where we live, for some reason – but my boyfriend was really happy with the way the sauce worked with rigatoni (I had mine over rice – not a great texture combination – because my joints were playing up too much for me to risk eating wheat-based pasta, and I couldn't find any remotely decent rice-based pasta). I'm really happy with the addition of the gelatine, and my two recipe sources in general: I definitely recommend them both. I discovered earlier today that I'd flaked and forgotten about a quarter of the pancetta, when I put it in the refrigerator to re-chill, since it was getting difficult to chop up, which probably explains why I needed to add some fat when I sautéed the vegetable. Might instead deserve to be honoured by being called a game ragù Mine definitely improved over a 24-hour period, became more balanced. I really like the way strongly-flavoured things develop over a little time, as compared to when they're first finished. Yesterday, the ragù I made had an aggressive liver note that was gone today, and no one ingredient leapt out and dominated; the flavour was very rich and seamless.

Specifically, in Italian 'sugo' means juice. Incidentally, dairy is by no means a 'must' in ragù bolognese: There are plenty of food historians/bolognesi who are as vehement about not using milk, cream, or either, as insist that it is key! If you speak even a little italian, do an online search for something like [ragù bolognese latte crema sì o no?], and enjoy the flying fur

Heh, I misunderstood that as your having added them to the sauce No, I fudged on the liver to meat ratio in the classic recipe I used. I only used about 3 chicken livers, sauteed in butter but left rare, then minced and put into the meat mixture. I thought that looked less less than half a pound of livers!

I'm also curious as to what brand/kind of orecchiette you're using, since I've never had any special problems with this shape; I might just have been lucky in the brands I've used.

That is a delicious-sounding combination, and I thought it was interesting that you too found the liver very mild, since my sauce smells so livery to me (making things more confusing, my boyfriend isn't getting this note at all, although he has a far better sense of smell than I do, most of the time). I simmered my sauce until the last of the litre (about a quart) of broth I added was reduced, which came to about 3 hours and a quarter. I guess you could simmer it covered after that, but my experience is that it is one of those things that improves each time you reheat it, sort of like pinto beans.

The liver in my Bolognese was very subtle. However, I put a lot of chicken liver in the meat sauce I use for Canneloni and Lasagna. It adds the unctuous creaminess when combined with the besciamella and tomato sauce I used in those dishes. Did you use the 1 lb ground meat to 1/2 lb chicken livers (2:1 ratio) of the recipe you mentioned ? I used about 31.7 oz ground meat to about 5.3 oz chicken liver (roughly, 6:1 ratio), and I'm finding the liver's presence pretty assertive... and I like liver. I'm trying to figure out what's goingon, here.