Here at The Salt Box, we are firm believers in nourishing through nature. So head out into the garden, roll up your sleeves and fire up your pits.
Our pheasant meatballs are the perfect way to introduce your younger ones to wild game meat. We are firm believers that if we are eating meat, then we should all be trying to incorporate a little more game meat into our diets. It’s super sustainable, really healthy and generally a lot more flavourful than the mainstream sources of protein found on our supermarket shelves.
Your local butcher should be able to source you some pheasant, as well as mince it for you. If pheasant isn’t available when you come to cook your meatballs, then it can easily be substituted for partridge, pigeon, rabbit, venison… or literally any other meat of your choice.
The only thing we need to consider when using a different meat is the fat content – we generally look for a fat content of 20%. This gives us the perfect balance between moisture, flavour and texture. In this recipe, we’re using a combination of minced pheasant and minced pork. To add an extra bit of indulgence, you could also add a little prosciutto or cured meat to your pheasant meatballs, to give them a real depth of flavour.
The egg and bread in this recipe are crucial for binding the meats together, making sure that they don’t fall apart in the pan. Soaking the bread in the milk first, makes the cooked pheasant meatballs so much lighter and super tender. If the meatballs feel dry, then you can add a splash more milk before cooking. Only add a little at a time, we can always add more but it’s harder to rectify if we add too much.
This dish is best served simply around the fire with a large hunk of crusty bread. By all means bulk it out with pasta, polenta or mash, but for us it’s the simple pleasure of keeping it simple and working as a family to create a wonderful family feast cooked around the fire.
We would love to hear from you if you give the recipe a try, let us know how you get on and share your creations on our social media @thesaltboxuk.
At The Salt Box, we host a range of butchery and cookery courses celebrating all things feathered and furred. Throughout the season, join us on our Wild Venison Butchery Course or our Wild Game Butchery and Cookery Course, here in our Woodland Kitchen.
50g fresh breadcrumbs
400g pheasant thighs, minced
150g pork belly, minced
A good pinch of nutmeg
A good pinch of fennel seeds (or 1 tsp of Salt Box Chilli, Fennel and Orange Seasoning if your wildlings can take a bit of heat!)
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1 egg
45ml of milk
3 sprigs sage
3 sprigs rosemary
1 large clove of garlic
450ml passata / tomato sauce of your choice
1 ball mozzarella, roughly shredded
Before we start making our feast, we need to light a fire and let it burn down to a good bed of embers. Rake the embers out leaving a little fire burning in the back third of the fire pit, so that we can generate more embers to cook over throughout the cooking process.
Next, we need to get a bowl and pour in the milk and the breadcrumbs. Give them a good stir together and set them aside so the bread crumbs can absorb all the milk and plump up a little.
In a large bowl, place the pheasant mince, pork mince and a little salt and pepper.
Finely grate the lemon and garlic into the bowl of mince.
Add a pinch each of ground nutmeg and fennel seeds.
Crack in the egg and give everything a good mix together. Try and be light handed – as the more we work the mince, the tougher the meatballs will be once they are cooked. If the meatball mix feels a little dry then we can add a splash more milk, giving everything another quick mix together.
Place a skillet or heavy based frying pan onto the grill to begin warming up. Make sure the frying pan is big enough to hold all your meatballs (without crowding them).
Take small nuggets of the meatball mix and roll between your hands to form bite sized meatballs, keep rolling until the mix is used up.
Place a little oil into your pre-heated pan, if the pan is hot enough – the oil should shimmer. If not, place the pan a little closer to the heat before placing in your meatballs. It’s a good idea to wear fire gloves when moving cast-iron pans around the grills.
Place the meatballs into the skillet and allow them to brown gently in the pan. Be sure to only turn the meatballs when they have ‘released’ themselves from the bottom of the pan. Gently turn the meatballs in the pan, trying to get a good amount of colour them on all sides.
Once the meatballs have taken on some colour, add the sage and rosemary sprigs into the pan, this will add loads of flavour to the meatballs but can easily be removed if your little wildlings won’t like the stronger taste of these herbs.
Once the meatballs have browned all over, it’s time to add in your tomato sauce or passata. It will splutter and may spit a little – so be careful and allow it to settle before giving it all stir together.
Move the skillet to the coolest part of the fire to allow the sauce to gently simmer. Cook the meatballs until they are cooked through, an instant read thermometer such as a Thermapen is super handy for this. The core temperature should register at 71 degrees C.
Scatter over the shredded mozzarella and allow to melt. If you have a pair of long handled tongs (and fire gloves), you could grab a smouldering log from the fire and use it to grill the cheese by holding it close to the surface of the cheese. It’s best if an adult does this part!
Remove the pan from the fire and place on something heat proof, allowing to cool slightly before digging in (the mozzarella in particular will be like lava!).
Serve with a nice crusty loaf of bread, on mash or polenta, spaghetti or your favourite pasta.
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Try and be light handed when mixing together the mince, the more we work the mince the tougher the meatballs will be once they are cooked.
Make sure your frying pan is big enough to hold all your meatballs without crowding it.
Move the skillet to the coolest part of the fire to allow the sauce to gently simmer. Cook the meatballs until they are cooked through, an instant read thermometer such as a Thermapen is super handy for this. The core temperature should register at 71 degrees C.
Learn more about the benefits of cooking pheasant, including a selection of recipes, in our Spotlight On Pheasant feature.
Disclosure: We only recommend products we have extensively tried and tested and all opinions expressed here are our own. This page may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, we may earn a small commission.
