Roast Partridge

Ingredients

• a slice of fat bacon
• butter for basting
• a little flour
• salt to taste
• a dessert-spoonful of corn-flour
• half a pound of lean beef
• a slice of butter
• a minced onion
• a bay-leaf
• two cloves
• six peppercorns
• a bunch of parsley
• a piece of carrot
• a pinch of bruised celery-seed

Method

1. 1

   Draw the birds, wipe them inside and out, cut off the head, and truss the bird.

2. 2

   Tie a slice of fat bacon over the breast if desired.

3. 3

   Spit the partridge and roast it over a clear fire, basting with dripping every 2-3 minutes.

4. 4

   Small birds take about 25 minutes, large ones 35 minutes.

5. 5

   Five minutes before done, substitute butter for dripping and dredge flour on the breast.

6. 6

   Serve immediately with gravy and bread sauce.

As published

This recipe was extracted from A year's cookery (1880) by Phillis Browne, page 275. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

a slice of fat bacon over the breast to keep it moist, but be careful to remove this before sending the bird to table. Spit the partridge, put it down to a clear bright lire, and begin to baste it at once with good dripping, and A YEAR'S COOKERY. 319 baste it every two or three minutes. Small birds will be done enough in about twenty-five minutes, large birds will require thirty-five minutes. Five minutes before the bird is taken up substitute butter for the dripping in basting, take off the bacon, and dredge a little flour on the breast. Serve it immediately ; if it is kept hot in the oven or anything of that kind it will most likely be spoilt ; send good brown gravy and bread sauce (October 18th), and bread-crumbs on a separate dish, to table with it. Gravy for Game should be good^ and will of course need to be made a long time before the birds are put down to the fire. It is therefore worth while to allow a little gravy beef for this purpose, and if any trimmings of chicken bones are at hand so much the better. Take half a pound of lean beef (or hah veal and half beef may be used), cut them eat into small pieces, put it in a saucepan with a slice of butter and a minced onion, and move it about till brown ; put with it a bay-leaf, two cloves, six peppercorns, a bunch of parsley, a piece of carrot, and a pinch of bruised celery-seed tied in muslin ; add also a dessert-spoonful of corn-flour mixed to a smooth paste with water. Stir the sauce till it boils, cover it closely, draw it to the side, and simmer it gently for an hour or more till it is strong. Strain, let it cool, free it from fat, add a little sugar browning if necessary, and salt to taste

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