±44 THE COOKERY OF THE PHEASANT 



entremets.^ The Chevalier, betrayed by a friend and 

 touched in his tenderest point, got up with what dig- 

 nity he could after his gorging, and vindictively 

 nursed the sense of the injury, till he yielded, after 

 many months, to the pleadings of his stomach and 

 palate. Brillat-Savarin of course tells his story well, 

 and he treats it from the patriotic point of view. But 

 we are reminded of the comedy in Goldsmith's letter 

 of gratitude for the haunch of venison from Lord 

 Clare, and, in the course of researches into cosmo- 

 politan gastro-lore, we find parallels in the culinary 

 anecdotes of many nations. Truffles are generally 

 associated with pheasants, as geese fattened on farms 

 with apple orchards go with apple sauce, and as the 

 wild boar, for some more recondite reason, is served 

 with barberry sauce or a sweet dressing of cherries 

 or plums. And truffles may sometimes be judiciously 

 introduced in pheasantry, as is shown specially in the 

 faisan a la Sainte- Alliance. Brillat-Savarin swore by 

 that dish, yet as a profound thinker and analyst he 

 remarks that the pheasant is scarcely succulent enough 

 to do justice to the aromatic dryness of the truffle. 



So we come back to what, in the words of 

 Solomon, is the conclusion of the whole matter — that 

 the excellence of pheasants depends on the rearing. 

 In England we know nothing to equal the Norfolk 



