Come autumn I am often inundated with birds from the shoot my dad attends, so one year as a thank you I potted up some pheasant for the proprietor and the keepers.

The best way to eat this potted pheasant is slightly warmed through, or at room temperature, on hot toast with butter and a scattering of capers. It’s so delicious, the meat is soft and tender and smoky, the thyme and butter really add to the flavours. It’s changed my view of pheasant no end…

Juniper and Wood-smoked Potted Pheasant

MAKES 2 x 225g jars

• 1 whole plucked pheasant

• 350g duck or goose fat, warmed

• 1 bay leaf

• 1 bunch of thyme, plus extra thyme leaves

• pepper

• 25g butter

• juice of 1/2 lemon

EQUIPMENT

• smoker (optional)

• mix of hickory and apple wood and juniper berries (optional)

• sharp scissors or game shears

• sterilized jars or small pots

Alternatives

Duck; rabbit; pork

I smoke the pheasant in a smoker for 2 hours with a mix of hickory and apple wood and some juniper berries. If you don’t have a smoker, preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6 and just roast the pheasant for 15 minutes instead.

When the pheasant is smoked or roasted, remove the legs and thighs and, using a pair of sharp scissors or game shears, cut the carcass in half lengthways and then in half again.

Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas 2. To confit, put the jointed pheasant in a pot that it fits snugly in and pour over the warm duck or goose fat. You want the fat to cover the pheasant as much as possible. Add the bay leaf and thyme, then cook in the oven for 1–11/2 hours until the meat is soft and falling off the bone.

When it is done, take the pheasant out of the fat and leave to cool. You can keep the fat in a jar in the fridge and use again. Just reserve a little of the warm fat to mix through the meat and to pour over the top of the finished pheasant.

Shred the pheasant meat into tiny pieces; this is best done by hand so you can discard any bits of bone, skin or fat, and you get a nice irregular coarse texture rather than a pâté texture if you blitz it. Add a little of the melted fat occasionally to keep it from drying out. Add quite a few thyme leaves and some black pepper.

Melt the butter in a pan over a low heat. Add the lemon juice to the butter, then mix through the meat.

Pack the meat into sterilized jars or small pots and pour over a thin layer of the melted fat, just enough to cover. This will keep for a few months in the fridge. I find that one bird makes two 225g jars of potted pheasant.