Food and Beer pairing: Pheasant....

A late birthday present landed my way this week. Two shot pheasant, one cock and one hen. The next thing to do was turn this wild game into something very tasty. I ended up pairing the food with Brewdog's Punkmonk. This is essentially Punk IPA brewed with Belgian yeast. It gives the beer a rich Belgian nose, similar to something a little offbeat such as Orval or De Ranke XX. It does however remind me somewhat on a homemade extract Pilsner I made years back, thats not necessarily a point in its favour.

The taste was spicy and well hopped, that being said the Belgian yeast seems to split the flavours down the middle. Its an odd mix of traditionally hopped 6% IPA with yeasty, chalky Belgian character. Its solid but I think the Punk IPA still reigns supreme.

Anyways, the food. This is of course a beer blog but food is just as important in my world so this post may be somewhat of a departure from norm.

Yesterday I skinned and gutted the birds. A suprisingly straightforward process, I was expecting much more blood and turmoil.

The process was, cutting the wings off at the joint. Then pulling the tail feathers out and cutting the legs off (cutting around the bottom then pulling hard to remove the tendons)

Next, cutting off the head followed by making a slit in the flesh. Basically then pull it all apart, ripping the skin from the body. Lastly, small cut inbetween the legs and crown and yanking out the insides. Quick wash under the tap and done.

I seperated the breasts and marinated them in port, gin, salt and pepper and a touch of nutmeg and cinammon. Left to soak for a few hours.


I did the legs confit, so, a bottle of vegetable oil , season the legs and cook for 1hr 30mins on a low heat.

I made a stock witht the carcass, carrot, celery, garlic and bay leaves. Cooked down, strained, then reduced to a third. The sauce was made with diced red onion, star anise, port and stock, cooked and reduced down and finished with butter.


The breasts were finally wrapped with smoked streaky bacon, pan fried and left to rest. Then served with the sauce along with brussel sprouts with bacon, shallot, honey and cashew nuts.


Twas a fine meal all round, however the legs.... dry as a bone. I think its fair to say next time they are getting slowly cooked in a casserole. The Punkmonk went very well. Ideally something with a bit more caramel and malt and a little less hops would have gone well, something like an old ale or rich beefy stout.