From Boot to Board: Making a Small Mixed Bag Earn Its Place at the Table

A mixed bag can be an awkward thing. One pigeon, a rabbit and a pheasant is a realistic November result for a lot of us—not enough for a feast, too good to waste. The temptation is to treat it as a trophy, then let it sit in the fridge until bin day. Better to treat it as supper.

Sort the bag before you sort the recipes

Mild autumn weather is the enemy. A pheasant left warm in a game bag will not improve, no matter how traditional the bag looks. Get the bag cool as soon as you can—shade, a cool box, a breeze through the motor. At home, deal with it promptly. Pigeon and rabbit are straightforward; pheasant takes a bit more time. If you're not cooking within a couple of days, freeze it, and label it with the date and species. Bacteria don't care about tradition.

Plucking, skinning and paunching without drama

Pheasant: for a weeknight, skinning is faster than plucking and gives a cleaner result than a half-plucked bird. If you want to roast it whole, pluck dry and draw it. Rabbit: paunch carefully, keep the liver and heart if you like them, and skin. Pigeon: breast them out for speed, or pluck and roast whole if you have the patience. Wear gloves, use a clean board, and keep raw game away from anything that isn't going to be cooked. Wash your hands like you mean it.

Pigeon with lentils and bacon

Serves two. Four pigeon breasts, a rasher or two of bacon, a mug of green lentils, onion, carrot, garlic, thyme and stock. Brown the pigeon briefly and set aside—don't overcook it. Soften the veg, add lentils and stock, and simmer until tender. Stir in the bacon and thyme, return the pigeon for a minute or two, and season. That's it. No sous-vide, no foam, no need to Instagram it.

Rabbit mustard casserole

One rabbit, jointed. Flour, mustard, onions, cider or stock, bay and thyme. Brown the rabbit, soften the onions, add liquid and a good spoon of mustard, then simmer gently for an hour or so until the meat comes away from the bone. Serve with mash. The legs are the best bit; don't bin them because a recipe told you to use only the saddle.

Pheasant traybake

Joint a pheasant, season it, and put it in a roasting tin with parsnips, carrots, potatoes, onions and thyme. Oil, salt, pepper. Roast until the bird is cooked and the veg is catching at the edges. If the pheasant is dry, that's usually because it was cooked too long—pheasant is lean and unforgiving. A traybake hides a multitude of sins and makes a Sunday-ish meal out of a weekday.

Waste less, respect more

Keep the carcasses. Simmer them with onion, carrot and bay for stock; freeze it in tubs. Use rabbit liver if you like it, or feed it to the dog. Label everything. A modest bag should not end up in the bin; that's the bit that matters more than any recipe. The quarry did its job. The least we can do is make a proper meal of it.