Mixed Bag

3 pheasants and their livers
� lb. chicken livers
6 tablespoons butter
1 bay leaf
pinch of thyme
2 tablespoons evaporated milk
3 diced shallots
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 cup game stock or diluted consomm�
2 tablespoons bread crumbs fried crisply in butter

Cook livers 3-4 minutes in the butter with seasonings. Discard bay leaf, force mixture through coarse sieve, bind with the milk. Partially fill orifices of the birds with the mixture, truss and place side by side in a casserole, adding game stock or consomm�. About 40 minutes in a 375� oven, covered, will give you tender birds. Split them, arrange on a hot platter, put some of the stuffing in each half, and sprinkle with juice of lemon.

Reduce stock to about half a cup, pour over the pheasant halves. Saut� the bread crumbs in butter until golden, sprinkle over the pheasants. Serve with a garnish of alternate slices of lemon and orange. Try to use small, young birds, if possible.

Pheasant with Smoked Sausages
This is a favorite hunting-cabin recipe, but it's equally good when prepared in your kitchen. Split young birds, rub with seasoned flour, saut� until brown in a little diced onion and butter. Place skin side up in a casserole, surround with country-smoked sausages, half cup of chopped carrots and onions, one tablespoon chopped parsley, a pint of dry white wine. Cover and consign to a 325� oven until meat is tender. Remove birds to a hot platter, surround with the sausages. Reduce pan juices about one-half, add a quarter glass of tart jelly—and pour over the birds.

Pheasant Salmi

If your family is kind and you discover some oddments of roast pheasant in the refrigerator, you are in luck. You have the makings of a glorious dish in the legs, second joints and possibly some breast slices from a brace of birds.

Put just a little butter in a pan with the meat, leave it on just enough heat to keep the meat warm. In a deep frying pan, saut� one diced onion in two tablespoons olive oil, brown slightly, add one diced shallot, one mashed clove garlic, one and a half tablespoons of flour. Blend and cook over moderate fire.

Add slowly, under vigorous stirring, two-thirds cup of claret. Let the sauce thicken and add one cup canned tomatoes cut into small pieces, a half teaspoon salt, a generous sprinkle of freshly ground pepper, a fagot of two stalks celery, six sprigs parsley, half small bay leaf.

Remove meat from the bones, cut into bite size and return to the pan. Add bones and skin to the sauce and simmer for one hour, strain and pour over the pieces of meat while very hot. Top with broiled mushrooms and serve with wild rice.

WOODCOCK