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Partridges, Braised, with Cabbage
Pluck and draw two partridges, truss them as if for boiling, and cover with thin slices of bacon, tied on securely with strong twine. Trim and wash two small cabbages, or a savoy, boil them, uncovered, for a quarter of an hour, and afterwards drain them thoroughly. Slice a carrot, an onion, and some sticks of celery into a stewpan. Put with them three ounces of fresh butter, a large lump of sugar, crushed to powder, a salt-spoonful of pepper, the eighth of a grated nutmeg, and a little salt, the quantity to be regulated by the saltness of the bacon. Put a layer of cabbage over these, then lay in the partridges, breasts uppermost, and afterwards the rest of the cabbage. Cover the whole with good stock, then simmer as gently as possible until the partridges are done enough; keep moistening them with gravy, if required. Dish the birds upon the bacon, and put the cabbage round them. To make the gravy, mix an ounce of butter with an ounce of flour, and stir them over the fire for three minutes, add a pint of good stock, and boil quickly for ten minutes. Strain the gravy into a tureen, and serve immediately. Fried sausages are often sent to table with this dish, which is a great favourite in France. Time, about one hour and a half to simmer the birds, etc. Probable cost of partridges, 3s. per brace, but the price varies. Sufficient for four persons.
A classic perdrix aux choux, and one of the few braises where the cabbage is as much the point as the bird. The main adjustment a modern cook needs to make is to the timing, which assumes older, tougher birds than most people buy today.
- Match the time to the birdThe stated hour and a half suits mature, late-season partridges with tough legs. Young oven-ready birds, which is what a butcher or game dealer will usually sell, are dry and stringy well before that. Either buy old birds deliberately for this dish, or braise the cabbage for the full time and lay the birds in for the last 30-40 minutes only.
- Simmering temperature"As gently as possible" means barely trembling rather than boiling; the recipe itself gives no temperature. On a modern hob this may be easier to hold in a covered casserole in a low oven than over a burner.
- Small measuresPeriod tables put a saltspoonful at somewhere between an eighth and a quarter of a teaspoon. "A large lump of sugar" means a lump broken from a sugar loaf, and loaf lumps were not of a standard size; a couple of teaspoons is a reasonable reading. An eighth of a nutmeg is roughly a quarter teaspoon grated.
- The bacon is barding, not seasoningThin slices tied over the breast keep it from drying in the long braise; use unsmoked streaky or pancetta rather than heavily cured smoked bacon, which will dominate the pot. Go carefully with the salt: the recipe leaves the quantity to be regulated by the saltness of the bacon.
- Blanching the cabbageFifteen minutes uncovered in plenty of water draws out sulphurous compounds and sets the colour; drain and press it hard, or the braise will be watery. A savoy holds its texture through the long cook far better than a smooth white cabbage.
- How much stockNo quantity is given. Enough to just cover the packed cabbage and birds, usually 1 1/2 to 2 pints in a snug casserole. Too much and the finished dish is soup rather than a braise.
- The gravyThis is a plain white roux slackened with stock, made separately so the braising liquor is not thickened. Cook the butter and flour the full three minutes to lose the raw taste, and boil the sauce hard for ten minutes to reduce and clarify it. Adding some strained, degreased braising liquor in place of part of the stock improves it considerably.
- ServingFour portions, half a bird each. Untie and discard the twine before dishing, and keep the bacon slices to sit the birds on. Fried sausages, as suggested, are traditional; boiled potatoes take up the juices.
Braised partridge with cabbage is one of the standard French country preparations of game, and the dish is described as "a great favourite in France": it is perdrix aux choux, a way of dealing with birds too old to roast. The long, gentle braise softens tough legs while the bacon and butter compensate for flesh that carries almost no fat of its own, and the cabbage absorbs everything the bird gives up. The pricing note, three shillings a brace with the caution that prices vary, places the dish in a specifically British context, where partridge was shot on estates and sold through poulterers rather than farmed, so supply swung with the season and the weather. Grey partridge was then abundant in English arable country; the red-legged partridge more common today was an eighteenth-century introduction. Recipes of this period are often said to have distinguished roasting birds from braising birds, a distinction largely lost now that game birds reach shops young and uniform.