The handy dictionary of cookery

Partridges are delicate and tender if carefully boiled, and form a suitable dish for delicate persons who are aged or invalids. Wash and truss them as chickens are trussed for boiling. Drop them into boiling water. Simmer slowly fifteen to twenty minutes. Serve with sliced lemon round the dish, bread sauce, and game gravy. Note. — If preferred, a good white sauce may be poured over the birds. Partridge Pie. Take three young birds ; pluck, draw, and singe them ; cut them in halves, lengthwise ; mince the livers finely, with a tablespoonful of finely chopped parsley, a saltspoonful of salt, half a saltspoonful of pepper, a very little ground mace, and two tablespoonfuls of bread crumbs. Mix the forcemeat well together with half an ounce of butter ; put it into the birds. Take a shallow pie-dish, and line the edges with puff pastry. Lay a slice of lean veal at the bottom of the dish ; sprinkle over a very little salt, pepper, and powdered mace. Wrap the birds in thin slices of fat bacon ; pack them with the breast downwards upon the veal, and pour over them some good veal stock ; cover the top with puff pastry, ornament it prettily ; brush over with beaten egg. Bake in a hot oven for ten minutes ; then remove it to a cool part of the oven one hour and a half. This is suitable for breakfast, supper, or luncheon. Partridges, Roast. Pluck, singe, and draw the birds ; wipe them very carefully inside and out ; see that they are quite clean. Bring the head round and place it in the left wing, with the bill laid on the breast. Draw the legs close to the breast ; pass the trussing-needle and string through the pinions and middle joints of the thighs, tie firmly; bring the needle through the back below the thighs, then again through the body and legs ; tie the strings firmly ; cover the breast with thin slices of fat bacon. Put the birds down before a clear bright fire ; baste them well — a brace will take from thirty to forty minutes to cook. When nearly done, flour them well so that they may brown nicely. The birds may be served on fried bread crumbs, or on a slice of buttered toast, or they may be put on a hot dish and garnished with watercresses. Brown gravy and bread sauce should be sent to table with them. Partridges, Stewed. Truss a brace of birds as for boiling ; put them into a stewpan with an onion prepared, a piece of carrot, celery, a bunch of sweet herbs, a blade of mace, a little salt and cayenne pepper. Cover with good brown boiling stock ; simmer very slowly till tender. Serve hot with onion or soubise sauce poured over, made with some of the liquid in which they were stewed. A^ote. — Partridges may be stuffed as follows ; — Dissolve two ounces of butter in a stewpan. Have ready prepared one pint of small mushrooms ; cook them well in the butter; add a little salt, a grain of cayenne pepper ; stir them over the fire ten minutes. Turn out the contents ; when cold, stuff the birds ; truss firmly, and roast or stew in the usual way. Pastry, Economical Short Crust.