A guide to modern cookery

Bone the breast and fill the partridge with truffled partridge forcemeat, prepared with panada or butter. Between the skin and the fillets, slip a few slices of very black truffle; truss as for an entrée; wrap the piece in muslin, and poach it for thirty minutes in a game fumet. When about to serve, remove the muslin; take the string off, and dish the partridge. Reduce the fumet in which the partridge has poached; strain it; add thereto a liqueur-glassful of burnt liqueur-brandy, and send this reduced fumet separately. 1866—PERDREAU EN ESTOUFFADE Brown the partridge in the oven and set in a terrine just large enough to hold it, with a tablespoonful of Matignon (No. 227) and one crushed juniper berry, on top and beneath. Add one-half oz. of butter, a liqueur-glassful of burnt brandy, and twice that amount of game fumet. Close the terrine; seal down the lid with a strip of paste; bake in a hot oven for twenty-five minutes and serve the dish as it stands. 1867—PERDREAU A LA LAUTREC Select a young partridge; open its back; slightly flatten it with a butcher’s beater; pierce it through with a skewer; season it with salt, pepper and melted butter, and gently grill. At the same time grill six small mushroom-heads. Dish the partridge; on either side of it set the mushrooms, each of which should be garnished with a coffeespoonful of Maitre-d’hétel butter; surround the mushrooms with a thread of melted meat glaze and sprinkle the partridge with a few drops of lemon juice. 1868—PERDREAU LADY CLIFFORD Cook the partridge in butter in a saucepan. When it is three-parts done, surround it with two oz. of fine slices of raw truffle; add a liqueur-glassful of burnt brandy and one tablespoonful of clear melted meat glaze. Serve a Soubise sauce at the same time and separately. 1869—PERDREAU AUX CHOUX Prepare a garnish of braised cabbages as explained under No. 2100, and add thereto an old partridge, browned in the oven or on the spit. Meanwhile, roast or poéle a very tender young partridge and keep it underdone. Dish the cabbages, which should be well drained; set the young partridge upon them, and surround with small rectangles of very lean bacon, cooked with the cabbages, and a thread of half-glaze sauce, flavoured with game fumet. N.B.—This dish may be given a more decorative appearance by means of a sort of Chartreuse, which is prepared as follows :—Line a large bowl or a buttered, round-bottomed timbale with roundels of sausages; roundels of carrots arranged in superposed rows, separated by a line of French beans or peas; and small rectangles of bacon, laid side by side. Line the inside of the timbale with a thick layer of cabbages, and put the young partridge, breast undermost, in the middle (the partridge may also be carved up). Cover the cabbages and press the latter with a fork; turn the timbale out on a dish and tilt the latter that all the grease may fall before withdrawing the timbale, which answers the purpose of a mould. Surround with a thread of half-glaze sauce, flavoured with game fumet. 1870—CREPINETTES DE PERDREAUX After substituting the meat of a young partridge, cleared of all tendons, for the veal sweetbreads, and fresh bacon for calf’s udder, proceed exactly as directed (as regards quantities and other particulars) under ‘‘ Crépinettes de ris de Veau’”’ (No. 1222), taking care to add three oz. of chopped truffles per Ib. of the forcemeat. Divide up the forcemeat into portions one and one-half oz. to two oz. in weight; wrap them in pig’s caul; roll them first in melted butter and then in bread-crumbs, and grill them gently. The usual accompaniment to these crépinettes is a light chestnut or lentil purée. 1871—EPIGRAMMES DE PERDREAU