A first for me, and I'm rather wishing I'd paid attention to the NRA Women's magazine articles about preparing pheasant and such, rather than complain about how stupid it was to assume that women wanted to know how to cook wild animals...

One of my coworkers offered a fresh pheasant to me. Mr. Kipper is going to field dress it, but I'm not sure how to cook a fresh pheasant.

Any suggestions?

Think "very dry, small chicken." Little fat on these birds, so often advised to drape with bacon while roasting to keep them from drying out.

Here is what Emeril says:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/e...nt-recipe.html

Prepping and jointing or just a recipe?

Depending on the age of the bird, you could either roast the young ones or slow cook/braise the older ones. If you plan on slow cooking it, make sure to remove the thigh tendons as these harden into nasty plastic-y spikes.

Throw it in the trash and buy a chicken.

My Dad was an avid pheasant hunter and brought limit after limit of them home every fall. He and Mom tried every imaginable way of cooking them, and nobody, including him ever liked them. Seriously, a crockpot is your best bet.

It's common to use juniper berries when cooking game to help mask its strong flavour.
If they're not available just pour yourself several large gins and hope for the best.

This. 1 pheasant won't go very far either.

Are you mad? I love game and, whilst pheasant is the least interesting, it's still delicious, with a much richer taste than chicken and so much healthier as it hasn't been pumped full of chemicals.

Roasting is certainly the way to go with younger birds. Cover the breasts with fatty bacon and serve with gravy, bread sauce and game chips. For older birds, use in a casserole with much the same recipe as chicken but expect a meatier taste.

I'm warming up for some partridge tonight - a much finer bird with a substantially gamier taste (one per person rather than one between two with pheasant).

How does one tell if it is a young bird or old bird?

I'm thinking roasting it with bacon will work.

Ignore the wings because you can't tell based on the wings with Pheasants. Look at the spurs of the bird. Junvenile (a year old or less) = light coloured spur, blunt tip and dull finish. Early in the season the spur is softer and shorter. Adult = dark coloured spur, hard, long, sharp tip and shinier.

Also don't throw away the feet. After cutting them off, prep by blanching and peeling the outer skin, then trim the nails and spurs. The prepped feet are an excellent ingredient for soup, stocks and demi-glace from which you can make the richest, silkiest gravies and can help set terrines.

Just wanted to add that if you have a choice of bird, choose the one that had a cleaner death. The flavour and texture will be affected by how much trauma and bruising it went through during the killing process. Often the undesirable "gamier" flavours associated with game is from severe bruising. It's true that meat tastes better from a lucky and skilled hunter's table.

Ha ha ha! Flyer Talk should allow banner quotation nominations so I could nominate this one!

I'm a pheasant hunter & do not find the bird to have a gamey taste nor a waste to cook. The following is one of our family's all time favorite pheasant recipes. Obviously reduce recipe based on your having a single bird.

Pheasant Jubilee
4 pheasants quartered
Flour
1/2 butter or margarine
1 onion chopped
1 cup chili sauce
1/2 water
1/2 brown sugar
2 TBS. Worchestershire sauce
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 cup California Sherry ( not too sweet)
1 (1-lb.) can pitted dark sweet cherries, drained

Dust pheasants with flour. Melt butter in a heavy skillet: brown birds thoroughly. Place pheasants in a deep casserole.

In the same skillet, combine onion, chili sauce, water, brown sugar, Worchestershire sauce and garlic; boil briefly, scraping browned meat from bottom and sides of pan; pour over pheasants.

Bake covered, in a moderately slow oven (325 degrees) for 1 1/2 hours. Remove cover; add sherry and cherries. Continue baking 20 minutes longer.

Remove meat & let cool a tad before serving. spoon desir.ed amount of sauce over meat

Or another way of checking is to see how firm or soft the breasts are to prodding. Older (ie tougher) birds will have firm breasts, whereas younger will be much softer and springier.

I presume I'm allowed to say such a thing on this august organ

Of course the OP will probably need a pheasant plucker.
Any suggestions ?

Cook with cider and apples - as the French do. Works very well.

Do you have access to a reliable temperature of 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit for a week or so?

If so, and the bird is relatively intact (and actually wild; not a reared pheasant released just for hunting), hang it for 4-7 before plucking.