I have no firsthand experience with pheasant, but I checked a couple of cookbooks and this is what I found.

First, there are only six pages separating "pheasant" and "pike" in my Larousse Gastronomique. In a 1000+ page encyclopedia, that seems really really close, so to my mind your post wouldn't count as off-topic. Besides, sometimes you see game birds on portages, so to me it seems only natural to wonder about how to cook and eat them.

My "Northern Cookbook" (published by the Cdn govt a long time ago) has a few recipes which look pretty boring, so I won't share them here. But mostly they suggest cooking for a long time in some kind of liquid: Flour and fry pheasant pieces in butter then cook in some kind of sauce or chopped vegetables and stock for 1 1/2 hours (or until tender) on top of the stove (covered frypan) or 1 hour (covered) or more in the oven at 350. I'd suggest you look for duck recipes that sound interesting and then use the above cooking times. That book also likes to add some sherry to the sauce near the end of cooking.

Larousse has a lot of interesting ideas (40+ recipes in 4 1/2 pages), but again, you may have to make some adjustments to their original recipes.

For example: "Pheasant a la Languedocienne": Joint pheasant and season with salt & pepper. Finely chop some carrot, celery, onion, and ham, and cook this in butter in a frypan with salt, pepper, powdered thyme and bay leaf until tender. Add the pheasant pieces to the pan. Brown and sprinkle with 2 tbsp flour, and cook until the flour is golden. Add 1 1/4 cups red wine, mix well, cover and simmer for 35 minutes. Strain the sauce (cheesecloth) and put aside. Put the pheasant in a ceramic or glass dish with 8 small mushrooms and 12 thick strips of truffle (You may have to substitute wild mushrooms if you haven't planned ahead and have run out of truffles when you make this.) Pour on 2 tbsp brandy, the strained sauce, and some more butter, unless your cardiologist has recommended otherwise. Cook in the oven for another 35 minutes.

Larousse Gastronomique is a worthwhile investment for anyone interested in French cooking. Not all the recipes involve truffles or red wine, some are quite simple, and they all work.

Besides, it's an interesting read. In the preamble to their pheasant section, they reference classic French cooking guru Brillat-Savarin (early 1800's): "Eaten at precisely the right moment, its flesh is tender, sublime, and highly flavoured ... This ideal moment is when the pheasant begins to decompose. Then its aroma develops an oily essence which requires a little fermentation to reach perfection ... " Yum!

They never miss chance to take potshots at the cuisine of inferior (non-French) cultures either. For example, "Pheasant a l'Americaine" is garnished with potato chips.

Your local library might have a copy, and there appear to be free pdf versions available on the net, though the legality of this latter source might be questionable. If you're not in a rush, PM me and I can probably photocopy a few pages and email them to you.

Bon Appetit!

Thanks for the ideas!  I've concluded, as you commented, that the dry nature of pheasant meat requires two things: some kind of sauce and low heat for long periods of time. 

The photo is a picture of a recent dinner I cooked for wife and friends: stuffed pheasant breasts pan seared, then stuffed (with brie cheese, crimini mushrooms, shallots, onions, garlic, and wrapped in bacon), then baked in puff pastry.  Wonderful flavor, but the meat was still dry!  Putzy, but I did like the presentation, along with a wonderful 5 grain rice side my dearly beloved made. 

I'm going back to sauce and slow cooking!

prouboy

I have a book called " Game Cookbook" by Geraldine Steindler.
Every wild game you can think of.
Including Moose Nose
She has at least 7 recipes for young/old birds.
They have it at Amazon.

Thanks for all the advice/ideas!   

All my birds are wild, wiley MN birds.  Tough to hunt and tough to eat!  I'm resigned to low temps/long cooking times, immersed in cream/sauce.  Good on the taste buds, hard on the heart.

prouboy

Thanks C_Cowboy.  I'll definitely check it out!

prouboy