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PARTRIDGES, PIE OF (another way)
Pluck, draw, and singe a brace of young partridges, and season them, inside and out, with a little salt, cayenne, and powdered mace. Cover them with thin rashers of fat bacon, and put them into a stewpan with a quarter of a pint of veal stock, or water; put on the lid, and let them simmer as gently as possible for half an hour. Whilst they are simmering, make a forcemeat, by mincing together, very finely, a quarter of a pound of lean veal, a quarter of a pound of fat bacon, and a quarter of a pound of liver. Season this with salt, cayenne, and powdered mace, and spread half of the forcemeat at the bottom of the dish. Take out the birds, and cut them into quarters. Lay half of the bacon which was tied round them upon the forcemeat, then pack in the partridges, and cover them with the remainder of the forcemeat and bacon. Pour in three table-spoonfuls of the gravy in which the partridges were simmered. Line the edges of the dish with good pastry, and cover with the same. Make a hole in the centre and bake in a quick oven. Before sending the pie to table, pour in a quarter of a pint of good gravy, which has been slightly flavoured with lemon-juice. Time to bake, about one hour. Probable cost, 4s. 6d. Sufficient for three or four persons.
A two-stage game pie: the birds are part-cooked in stock, jointed, then packed into a raw forcemeat and baked under pastry. The forcemeat is the part that decides whether the pie works, since it must cook through in the same hour that the crust browns.
- A brace, and what to buyA brace is two birds. Farmed partridge (usually red-legged) is available from game dealers in season, birds running roughly 10-16 oz each; two quail or a poussin cut down will stand in, though the flavour is milder and the simmering time shorter.
- A quarter of a pintFive fluid ounces in imperial measure, so a generous half cup. The same quantity appears again for the finishing gravy.
- A quick ovenRoughly 400-450F, an approximate modern equivalent. At that heat the pastry will be coloured well before the hour is up, so shield the top loosely with foil once it is golden and let the filling finish.
- The liverCassell's does not say which. The birds' own livers, reserved when drawing them, are an obvious candidate, but a quarter of a pound would have to be made up with calf's or chicken liver.
- Forcemeat doneness is the hingeThe veal, bacon and liver go in raw and must reach 165F at the centre of the pie. A pie of this depth needs the full hour and often a little more; probe through the vent hole rather than judging by the crust.
- The hole in the centreIt vents steam so the pastry does not lift or split, and it is the port for the finishing gravy. Cut it before baking and keep a small pastry stopper or a rolled paper funnel to hand.
- The finishing gravyPoured in hot, just before serving, so it does not boil away in the oven. A well-reduced veal or game stock is presumably what is meant.
- Yield and costThree or four people, as stated. The 4s 6d is a retail figure of the book's own period.
Cassell's gives several partridge pies because the bird was, for much of the nineteenth century, widely available: the grey partridge thrived on mixed arable farming, and the season from September to February coincided with the months when a raised or dish pie could be carried, kept cool and eaten cold over several days. The construction here is older than the book, generally traced to the eighteenth-century method of burying jointed birds in a seasoned forcemeat of veal, fat bacon and liver so that the lean, dry flesh of a wild bird bastes from within; the layer of bacon rashers does the same job from outside. Adding a separately made gravy through the vent after baking, rather than putting liquid in beforehand, is a habit of the period that keeps the pastry crisp.