The first half of the 20th Century might well be described as the golden age of the bobwhite. It was an era that produced some of the finest writing ever on quail hunting, thanks to the literary talents of men such as Nash Buckingham, Archibald Rutledge, and Havilah Babcock. Not surprisingly, all were staunch sons of the Southern heartland, where thanks to a happy marriage of geography, suitable habitat, and human affection for the “five ounces of feathered dynamite,” quail were plentiful and the sport’s hallowed traditions ran deep. Their evocative writings carried legions of admiring readers to December’s rising sun setting sere fields of sedge a-sparkle with millions of diamonds when it first touched the night’s layer of frost; to dogs holding fast on sunset coveys; and to mellow middays and savoring sumptuous field lunches beneath towering longleaf pines.

These writers’ tales also titillated sportsmen across the country, most notably affluent sportsmen from north of the Mason-Dixon Line with the financial wherewithal to hunt where they pleased.

Chef Hank Shaw
Author of Hunter, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast & Duck, Duck, Goose: Recipes and Techniques for Cooking Ducks and Geese

Ingredients
1 pheasant, cut into serving-size pieces
Salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped yellow or white onion
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup red wine (use Mavrodaphne, a Greek sweet wine, if you can get it)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
4-6 sage leaves, chopped
1 tablespoon dried oregano (Greek, if possible)
1 cinnamon stick
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1-2 tablespoons mustard
About 3-5 cups water (see below)
1 pound dried spaghetti
8-10 dates, pitted and chopped roughly
1/3 cup golden raisins (optional)
½ cup pine nuts, toasted
½ cup chopped fresh parsley, mint, fennel fronds, or a combination of the three
Directions
1 In a Dutch oven or other heavy, lidded pot, heat olive oil over medium-high heat and brown the pheasant pieces. Sprinkle some salt over them as they brown. Take your time and make
2 sure everything is nicely browned, as it makes a difference in the final dish. Remove the pheasant and set aside.
3 Add the carrot, celery, and onion; cook, stirring occasionally, until they are slightly browned, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another minute. While the veggies are cooking, mix the tomato paste in with the red wine and stir vigorously until they combine. Add to the pot and use a wooden spoon to scrape off any brown bits that have stuck to the bottom.
4 Put the pheasant pieces back into the pot, then add the thyme, oregano, rosemary, sage, cinnamon stick, vinegar, mustard—and enough water to cover everything by about 1 inch. Bring this to a simmer and cook over low heat until the pheasant meat wants to fall off the bone. This could take anywhere from 45 minutes for a young, pen-raised pheasant to 2 hours for an old, tough rooster.
5 Remove the pheasant, pull all the meat off the bones, and put into a large bowl. Discard the cinnamon stick. If there is less than 2 to 3 inches of liquid in the pot, add some more water and bring it to a boil.
6 Break the spaghetti in half and toss it into the pot with the dates, pine nuts, and raisins (if you are using them). Boil the pasta in the sauce uncovered until it is al dente. Toward
7 the end of cooking you may need to stir the pasta frequently because the sauce will be getting close to boiling away. If it does get too dry, add 1/4 cup of water just to loosen it.
8 When the pasta is done, turn off the heat and return the pheasant to the pot. Add the fresh herbs and toss to combine everything. Drizzle a little olive oil over it and serve at once with a light-bodied red wine or a hoppy beer.
Serves 4 to 6.
NOTE: See How to Break Down a Game Bird at www.honest-food.net for reference. If you don’t have pheasant, use partridge, chicken, or turkey.

Chef Hank Shaw
Author of Hunter, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast & Duck, Duck, Goose: Recipes and Techniques for Cooking Ducks and Geese

Ingredients
2 cottontail rabbits, or 1 domestic rabbit, cut into serving-size pieces
Salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 to 2 cups chicken stock
1 onion, sliced root to tip
Zest of a lemon, cut into wide strips (and white pith removed)
2 to 3 bay leaves
¼ cup lemon juice
½ cup sour cream
2 tablespoons capers
White wine to taste, at least 2 tablespoons
Black pepper
Parsley for garnish
Directions
1 Salt the rabbit pieces well and set aside for 10 minutes or so. Set a Dutch oven or other heavy, lidded pot over medium-high heat. Melt in 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter, pat the rabbit pieces dry, and brown well on all sides.You may need to do this in batches, so don’t crowd the pot and don’t rush things. Remove the rabbit pieces once they’re browned. This may take 15 minutes or so.
2 Add the remaining tablespoon of butter and then the sliced onion, and cook until the edges just begin to brown, about 6 minutes. Sprinkle with flour and stir well. Cook, stirring often, until the flour turns golden, about 5 minutes.
3 Return the rabbit to the pot and add enough chicken stock to cover. Use a wooden spoon to scrape any browned bits off the bottom of the
4 pot. Add the lemon zest, bay leaves, and lemon juice; bring to a simmer. Cover and cook gently until the rabbit wants to fall off the bone, which will take anywhere from 90 minutes to 3 hours, depending on how old (tough) your rabbit was.
5 This is an optional step, but preferred: Turn off the heat, fish out the rabbit pieces, and let them cool on a baking sheet. Pull all the meat off the bones and return the meat to the stew.
6 Serve this with bread or potatoes and a crisp, German white wine. A lager beer would be good, too. Serves 4 to 6.
Serves 4 to 6.
Hank’s Tips
1 Butchering a rabbit is harder than cutting up a chicken. If you are butchering the rabbit yourself, visit the site www.honest-food.net for a tutorial titled How to Cut Up a Rabbit.
2 Flavorwise, this stew really works well with lighter meats. Don’t use hare or jackrabbit for this recipe—stick to cottontails, domestic rabbits, or snowshoe hares, which are all white-meat rabbits. Chicken thighs would work well here, too, as would pheasant. It is a two-step stew, meaning you make the base and “mount” it with sour cream, white wine, and capers right at the end. Once you add those final ingredients you are committed, so if you want to make this for dinners or lunches for the week, store just the base (up to Step 4) and add the remaining ingredients when you want to eat.