Ingredients:
1 pheasant, plucked with skin on1/4 cup Kosher salt
4 cups water
1/4 cup prickly pear syrup, or any other syrup
1 large sprig of sage (optional)
1 teaspoon cayenne powder
Ground black pepper
Mix the salt and water together and whisk to dissolve the salt.
When it is dissolved, pour it over the pheasant in a plastic or ceramic container, cover, and leave in the fridge for at least 4 hours, and up to 8 hours. Remove the pheasant and pat it dry.
Let it rest on a cutting board while you preheat the oven to 450 degrees, about 15-20 minutes.
Put the sprig of sage into the pheasant’s cavity and dust the pheasant with cayenne pepper.
Place the bird breast side down on a rack in a roasting pan.
If you don’t have a proper rack, rig something up with halved onions, carrots or the like.
I arrange potatoes around the pheasant, which serve as a good side dish.
Roast the pheasant for 15 minutes at 450 degrees, then drop the heat to 375 and roast for another 20 minutes.
Turn the pheasant breast side up and baste with the syrup.
Roast for another 30-40 minutes, basting twice in the first 20 minutes.
Keep watching the glaze, and remove the pheasant immediately if it burns too much — expect some burning at the edges of the legs and wings.
When the pheasant is done (thigh should be 160 degrees when poked with a thermometer), remove to a cutting board and tent loosely with foil.
Don’t mess with it for 10-15 minutes. To serve, carve the bird and grind some black pepper over it.