Pheasant Sauce

This is a proper restaurant pan sauce for roast pheasant, pulling four classic techniques into one quick build: a dry caramel base, an alcohol deglaze, a reduction, and a butter mount.

The gin is the unexpected ingredient. Juniper berries are the traditional partner for pheasant, and the juniper-forward botanicals in gin deliver that same forest note in liquid form. Three tablespoons is enough to perfume the entire sauce without making it taste like a cocktail.

Mounting the sauce with cold butter is the technique that gives it body and sheen. Adding one or two pieces at a time, swirling constantly without letting the sauce boil, suspends the butter as an emulsion. Boil it and the sauce breaks instantly.

Chef Tips

• Watch the dry caramel closely, it goes from amber to burnt in under a minute
• Use a homemade pheasant stock if at all possible, the depth is what makes this sauce sing
• Keep the butter cold until the last minute, it tempers the heat as it melts in
• Don’t let the sauce boil after the butter goes in, broken sauces can’t be re-emulsified
• Strain through a fine-mesh sieve for a glassy, restaurant-style finish

Variations

• Substitute gin with juniper berries crushed into the stock for an alcohol-free version
• Add a tablespoon of red currant jelly for a sweeter, more traditional British game sauce
• Use rich chicken or duck stock if pheasant stock isn’t available