Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Partridges, Stewed (a Creole recipe).— Stuff the birds with delicately seasoned force-meat, and lard the breasts with small strips of fat bacon ; dust with salt and pepper. Put two slices of lean, raw ham in the bottom of a saucepan, with a sliced carrot, a chopped onion, a bunch of sweet herbs, and a pint of stock ; lay the birds on top, and set over a moderate fire to stew gently for an hour ; then take up, strain the gravy, and rub the vegetables through a sieve ; return to the saucepan, and set over • the fire for ten minutes; crisp the lardons with a salamander; take up the birds on a heated dish, pour the gravy over, and garnish with small croutons of fried bread. Partridge or Pheasant, Souffle of. — Clean and cook two birds ; take off the breasts and other good parts of the flesh, without skin or gristle. Take 3 ozs. of boiled rice and mix in a mortar with a table-spoonful of butter, two of glaze, melted, and a little salt and pepper. Pound all together until a smooth mixture ; add the beaten yolks of four eggs and the whites of two. Pour the mixture into a souffle-case, set in a very hot oven to bake until light, and serve immediately with brown sauce. Pheasant a la Tartare, Grilled. — Pick and singe a pair of pheasants ; split down the back through the bone, • and remove the trail ; wipe out with a damp towel ; take off the heads and feet ; rub the inside well with pepper, salt, finely minced cloves, and parsley ; flatten the breasts, brush over with melted butter, and cook for half an hour before a hot fire, basting several times with butter. Serve with sauce tartare. Pigeons en Matelote. — Put some butter and flour into a stewpan, and simmer until they turn brown. Cook in the butter the pigeons cut in pieces, with a few thin slices of bacon. Pour over them some beef broth and white wine, and add some chives, parsley, thyme, mushrooms, and onions fried in butter, as well as salt, pepper, and spice. Boil down over a good fire. Pigeons, Vol-au-vent of. — Roll out a piece of puff paste to the shape and size of the dish in which it is intended to serve the vol-au-vent. It should be a little more than an inch in thickness. Make a knife hot in water, and with it mark the cover evenly an inch from the edge all round. Ornament the border in Pigeons with Pease Quail, Roast any way that may be preferred, and brush the vol-au-vent quickly over with yolk of egg. Put it at once into a brisk oven. When it is sufficiently risen and brightly colored, take it out. Take off the marked cover carefully, and scoop out the soft paste from the inside, without injuring the outside. Put the vol-au-vent back into the oven for a few minutes to dry, and fill it with the pigeons and sweetbreads prepared as follows : Divide