232 THE COOKERY OF THE PHEASANT 



trouble of fingering the feathers and scanning the 

 changing colours of the skin. Yet the more obvious 

 indications are undoubtedly useful to artists or 

 cordons bleus, who are simply well-meaning and con- 

 scientious. 



M. Kettner made his living by the science which 

 Savarin cultivated as a connoisseur, although in a 

 consistent course of experimental philosophy. And 

 Kettner goes further, for he lays down the law that the 

 pheasant must always be hung up till he falls down. We 

 suspect, however, from the unwonted enthusiasm with 

 which he expatiates on the gamey scent of the pheasant 

 that his senses were not over- delicate. In fact the 

 cooks of German or Provengal extraction must almost 

 necessarily be handicapped by the disadvantages of 

 their early education. Sauerkraut and bouillebaisse 

 may be excellent in their way, but no youth who has 

 been brought up on such strong-flavoured delicacies 

 can have the most fastidious of noses or the most 

 sensitive of palates. You might as well hope to do 

 justice to the delicacy of & flounder- soucM after a din- 

 ner of red herrings. The time for which game ought 

 to be kept is a question of sentiment, as well as of 

 taste. Some people have a not altogether unreason- 

 able prejudice against eating anything that is supposed 

 to be decomposing. That unfortunate prepossession 



