Broiled Partridge (Breakfast Dish)

Ingredients

• a young and well-kept partridge
• a little salt
• a little cayenne
• a bit of fresh butter
• a good slice of butter
• flour
• a little water
• mushroom-catsup

Method

1. 1

   Split the partridge and wipe it with a clean cloth inside and out, but do not wash it.

2. 2

   Broil it over a clear fire, sprinkling with salt and cayenne.

3. 3

   Rub fresh butter over it after removing from the fire, and serve with a sauce made of browned butter, flour, water, cayenne, salt, and mushroom-catsup.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Modern cookery, in all its branches (1884) by Eliza Acton, page 268. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

ROILED PARTRIDGE. ( Breakfast Dish .) “ Split a young and well-kept partridge, and wipe it with a soft clean cloth inside and out, but do not wash it ; broil it delicately over a very clear fire, sprinkling it with a little salt and cayenne ; rub a bit of fresh butter over it the moment it is taken from the fire, and send it quickly to table with a sauce made of a good slice of butter browned with flour, a little water, cayenne, salt, and mushroom- catsup, poured over it.” We give this receipt exactly as we received it from a house where we know it to have been greatly approved by various guests who have partaken of it there. BROILED PARTRIDGE. ( French Receipt .) After having prepared the bird with great nicety, divided, and flattened it, season it with salt, and pepper, or cayenne, dip it into clarified butter, and then into very fine bread-crumbs, and take care that every part shall be equally covered : if wanted of particularly good appearance dip it a second time into the butter and crumbs. Place it over a very clear fire, and broil it gently from twenty to thirty minutes. Send it to table with brown mushroom sauce, ot some Espagnole. THE FRENCH, OR RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE. This is dressed precisely like our common partridge, and is excel- lent eating if it be well kept ; otherwise it is tough and devoid of CHAP. XV.] GAME. 291 flavour. It does not, we believe, abound commonly in England, its hostility to the gray partridge, which it drives always from its neigh- bourhood, rendering it an undesirable occupant of a preserve. It was at one time, however, plentiful in Suffolk,* and in one or two of the adjoining counties, but great efforts, we have understood, have been made to exterminate it. TO ROAST THE LANDRAIL OR CORN-CRAKE. This delicate and excellent bird is in its full season at the end of August and early in September, when it abounds often in the poul- terers’ shops. Its plumage resembles that of the partridge, but it is of smaller size and of much more slender shape. Strip off the fea- thers, draw and prepare the bird as usual for the spit, truss it like a snipe, and roast it quickly at a. brisk but not a fierce fire from fifteen to eighteen minutes. Dish it on fried bread-crumbs, or omit these and serve it with gravy round it, and more in a tureen, and with well made bread sauce. Three or even four of the birds will be required for a dish. One makes a nice dinner for an invalid. TO ROAST BLACK COCK AND GRAY HEN. In season during the same time as the common grouse, and found like them on the moors, but less abundantly. These birds, so delicious when well kept and well roasted, are tough and comparatively flavourless when too seon dressed. They should hang therefore till they give unequivocal indication of being ready for the spit. Pick and draw them with exceeding care, as the skin is easily broken ; truss them like pheasants, lay them at a mo- derate distance from a clear brisk fire, baste them plentifully and constantly with butter, and serve them on a thick toast which has been laid under them in the dripping-pan for the last ten minutes of their roasting, and which will have imbibed a high degree of savour : some cooks squeeze a little lemon-juice over it before it is put into the pan. Send rich brown gravy and bread sauce to table with the birds. From three quarters of an hour to a full hour will roast them. Though kept to the point which we have recommended, they will not offend even the most fastidious eater after they are dressed, as, unless they have been too long allowed to hang, the action of the fire will remove all perceptible traces of their previous state. In the earlier part of the season, when warm and close packing have ren- dered either black game or grouse, in their transit from the North, apparently altogether unfit for table, the chloride of soda, well- diluted, may be used with advantage to restore them to a fitting state for it ; though the copious washings which must then be re- sorted to, may diminish something of their fine flavour. f to 1 hour. * Brought there by the late Marquis of Hertford, to his Sudbourne estate- 292 MODERN COOKERY. [chap. xv. TO ROAST GROUSE. Handle the birds very lightly in plucking off the feathers ; draw them, and wipe the insides with clean damp cloths ; or first wash, and then dry them well ; though this latter mode would not be ap- proved generally by epicures. Truss the grouse in the same manner as the black game above, and roast them about half an hour at a clear and brisk fire, keeping them basted almost without intermission. Serve them on a buttered toast which has been laid under them in the pan for ten minutes, or with gravy and bread sauce only. 4 hour to 35 minutes. Obs. — There are few occasions, we think, in which the contents of the dripping-pan can be introduced at table with advantage ; but in Iressing moor game, we would strongly recommend the toast to be laid in it under the birds, as it will afford a superior relish even to the birds themselves. A SALMI OF MOOR FOWL, PHEASANTS, OR PARTRIDGES. (entree.) This is an excellent mode of serving the remains of roasted game, but when a superlative salmi is desired, the birds must be scarcely more then half roasted for it. In either case carve them very neatly, and strip every particle of skin and fat from the legs, wings, and breasts ; bruise the bodies well, and put them with the skin and other trimmings into a very clean stewpan. If for a simple and inexpensive dinner, merely add to them two or three sliced eschalots, a bay leaf, a small blade of mace, and a few peppercorns; then pour in a pint or rather more of good veal gravy or strong broth, and boil it briskly until reduced nearly half ; strain the gravy, pressing the bones well to obtain all the flavour, skim off the fat, add a little cayenne

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.