Pheasant Soup

Ingredients

• 2 pheasants
• 115 g butter
• 2 slices ham
• 2 onions, large
• 0.5 head celery
• 2 French rolls
• 2 yolks eggs, hard-boiled
• to taste salt
• to taste cayenne pepper
• optional, to taste mace, pounded
• 3 quarts (2.8 litres) stock

Method

Joint the pheasants into legs and breasts. Season them aggressively with salt and cayenne — game benefits from forward seasoning before the maillard-reaction begins. Dust lightly with flour; shake off excess. Heat the butter and ham together in a heavy-bottomed pot over a medium-high flame. When the butter foams and smells nutty, lay in the pheasant pieces skin-side down. Do not move them for four to five minutes. You're building fond on the bottom of the pot, which becomes the flavour backbone of your stock. Turn each piece once, then brown the second side for another three minutes. The meat should be mahogany-brown, not charred — charring burns the sugars rather than caramelising them.

Add the sliced onions and celery. Stir for two minutes to coat them in the fat and knock up the fond from the pot base. Pour in the 2.8 litres of stock. Bring to a bare simmer — a few bubbles breaking the surface every few seconds — not a rolling boil. Skim any grey scum that rises in the first ten minutes. Continue simmering for two hours. The pheasant flesh will fall from the bone; pull the legs and breasts out and set aside to cool. Pass the liquid through a fine sieve into a clean pan, pressing gently on the solids without forcing the vegetables through.

When the pheasant has cooled enough to handle, shred the meat finely, discarding skin and sinew. Soak the crumb of the French rolls in a little cold water until soft — this acts as a binder. Pound the soaked bread with the hard-boiled egg yolks and the shredded pheasant game meat using a pestle and mortar until you have a smooth paste. This is your liaison: it will thicken the soup through emulsification and add richness without flour. Whisk this paste into the warm broth a spoonful at a time, ensuring each addition is fully incorporated before adding the next. A single vigorous simmer for one minute will cook the eggs through and stabilise the emulsion. The soup should be creamy-pale and coat the back of a spoon. Taste and adjust salt, cayenne, and mace (which cuts game's richness). Serve in heated bowls.