Tags
chicken, heritage recipes, historical food, holiday recipes, Jane Austen, main dishes, vintage recipes
The gentlemen of Jane Austen’s day were fond of hunting and hunting parties were often rowdy, weeks-long affairs with hunters moving from one grand estate to another. Their wives followed, and often there were huge dinners and dances held in private ballrooms to celebrate-and partake of the day’s catch. Among the popular game of the day was venison, rabbit, duck, and a host of different birds including woodcocks, pigeons, and pheasants.
This recipe, from Cooking with Jane Austen by Kirsten Olsen, is specifically made for pheasant. The cookbook says pheasants were not a common domestic fowl but would have been available at the finest of estates. The bird was much admired for its plumage and was often cooked with the feathers on, wrapped in paper to prevent them from burning.
There is one major grocery store in Cincinnati which likely has pheasant-but I did some research and found that a suitable substitute is the tender chicken cousin, the Cornish Game Hen.
Three hens ready to be stuffed and roasted!
This recipe is great for any small Christmas gathering in place of turkey-it’s a beautiful presentation and it‘s so easy to prepare. Each hen serves about two people.
The original recipe reads:
Roast them either drawn or larded, or with a stuffing made with the livers minced, with grated bacon, parsley and scallions shred fine, pepper and salt, and covered with slices of bacon and paper. Serve them with sauce a la Provencal, or any other sauce in the fashionable taste. They may be served also in patty hot or cold, or in a tureen.
Ingredients
• 3 Cornish game hens
• 9 strips of bacon
• ½ cup chopped parsley
• 2 baby bella mushrooms
• 1 small red onion, diced
• Pepper and salt to taste
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. If the bird comes with giblets, remove them. Wash the bird and pat it dry, then lay it in a roasting pan that’s been lined with foil and sprayed lightly with cooking spray.
In a small bowl, chop the giblets, and mix with three strips of bacon chopped, the parsley, mushrooms, and onion. Add a little salt and pepper.
Remind to ALWAYS stuff my birds from now on with bacon. Why didn’t I think of that before??
Stuff the bird with this mixture.
Stuffing the hen
Lay two more strips of bacon across the breast of each bird.
They’re stuffed and wrapped in bacon. Again, I say, why have I not thought of this bacon-wrapping thing before??
Roast until the temperature at the inner thigh reaches 180 degrees farenheit. Mine took about 45 minutes. If the skin begins to brown too quickly, reduce the heat to 425 degrees and cover the birds loosely with parchment paper.
The finished hens
Serve and enjoy!
Bite From the Past 
Which store has the pheasants? I’m making this for our Christmas dinner definitely! I’ll probably need to prepare 4-5 hens?! How many will fit on a 9×13 pan? That’s the largest sheet my toaster convection oven can accommodate (still haven’t replaced my broken oven). Think they’d cook well in a crockpot or not brown crispy enough?
By the way, bacon is amazing wrapped around meatloaf, over baked chicken breasts, and mixed into hamburgers before making patties. 🙂
Jungle Jim’s has pheasants I am certain. I could fit three in a 9×13 pan. I would think you could use a toaster oven but I am not about a crock pot. You might be able to if you add some liquid like broth and make sure the bacon is held onto the skin of the hens by twine or with cooking pins. And it might take quite a bit longer to cook thoroughly. Let me know if you try it!
Wonderful post. I’ll be sharing it over at Central Jersey JASNA with many links back to your site. Here is the link for my post it will go live Wednesday morning at 10 EST http://cnjjasna.blogspot.com/2012/12/jane-austens-roasted-pheasant.html
Thank you Amelia!!