Home › The Principles of Cookery › Partridges, Chartreuse Of
Partridges, Chartreuse Of
Boil some carrots and turnips separately, and cut them into pieces two inches long and three-quarters of an inch in diameter. Braise two small summer cabbages, or a savoy, drain them well, and stir them over the fire until they are quite dry; then roll them on a cloth, and cut them into pieces about two inches long and an inch thick. Roast a brace of partridges, and cut them into neat joints. Butter a plain entree mould; line it at the bottom and the sides with buttered paper, and afterwards fit in the pieces of carrot and turnip, to form a sort of wall; then fill it up with the cabbage and the pieces of partridge in alternate layers. Steam the chartreuse to make it hot; turn it out of the mould upon an entree dish, and garnish with turnips, carrots, and French beans. Send some good brown sauce to table with it. Time, half an hour to roast the partridges; two hours to braise the cabbage; steam the chartreuse until it is quite hot. Probable cost, 4s. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A moulded entrée that stands or falls on how the vegetable lining is packed — the wall of carrot and turnip is the dish's structure, and it must go into the mould tightly enough that nothing collapses when it is turned out. Most of the timings here are longer than modern practice wants.
- A brace of partridgesTwo birds, which is what "a brace" means in a game context. Grey or red-legged partridge is available from game dealers in season; four quail or two poussins give the same quantity of small dark-ish meat, though not the same flavour.
- Roasting timeHalf an hour will overcook a modern oven-ready partridge. Roast hot (around 425F) for 15-20 minutes and rest before jointing; the original gives no oven temperature. The meat is steamed again in the mould, so it can come out of the oven slightly underdone rather than dry, provided the assembled chartreuse is steamed until it is hot right through.
- The braised cabbageTwo hours suits a tough winter savoy cooked in stock over low heat; a supermarket cabbage or savoy is tender in 30-45 minutes. What matters is not the clock but the finish — the cabbage must be drained and dried out over the fire, or the water it releases will slacken the whole chartreuse.
- The mouldA "plain entree mould" is a smooth-sided deep cylindrical or dome mould without fluting; a charlotte tin or a straight-sided 1.5-quart pudding basin works. Butter it, line base and sides with buttered parchment, then lay the vegetable pieces against the paper in a close pattern with no gaps.
- Cutting the vegetablesThe original boils the carrots and turnips first and cuts them afterwards, to a uniform 2 inches by about 3/4 inch. Cook only until just tender -- soft enough to bend against the mould, firm enough to hold a straight edge. Overcooked pieces slump and the wall loses its lines.
- Steaming to heat throughCover the filled mould with buttered paper or foil and set it in a steamer or a covered pan with an inch of simmering water. Twenty to thirty minutes brings a mould of this size to serving heat. Let it stand a minute or two before inverting so it settles and releases cleanly.
- Good brown sauceAn espagnole or demi-glace in period terms. A brown stock reduction built on the partridge carcasses, thickened lightly and finished with butter, is closer to the intention than anything from a jar.
- Cost and yieldFour shillings tells you only that this was a dish for a household that bought game. The stated four or five servings is realistic if it goes out as an entrée course rather than a main.
The chartreuse takes its name from the Carthusian order, and the connection is usually explained by the monks' meatless diet: a chartreuse was originally a moulded dish of vegetables, and the story generally told is that game was concealed inside the vegetable casing. That explanation is traditional rather than documented, but the structure it describes is exactly what survives here — a decorative lining of carrot, turnip and cabbage with partridge hidden in the middle. By the nineteenth century the chartreuse belonged to the repertoire of moulded entrées associated with Carême's generation of French practice, dishes valued as much for the geometry of the turned-out mould as for what was in it.