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PARTRIDGES, ROAST (a German recipe)
Truss the partridges in the ordinary way. Place a vine-leaf upon the breast of each, over this lay two or three thin slices of fat bacon, and fasten these on securely with strong twine. Put the birds into a stewpan, just large enough to hold them, with as much butter as will keep them well basted, and when they are browned on one side turn them to the other, until they are equally coloured all over. When they are done enough, pour a cupful of thick cream over them, and sprinkle bread-crumbs, browned in butter, upon them. Time, a quarter of an hour to roast the birds. Probable cost, 3s. per brace. Sufficient for four or five persons.
This is a pan roast rather than an oven roast: the birds cook in butter in a covered-size stewpan, and the cream and crumbs go in at the end. A few Victorian conventions need translating.
- The hinge: fat, constantlyPartridge is very lean and has almost no fat under the skin, so the barding bacon and the butter are structural, not decorative. Keep the butter foaming and baste every few minutes; if the pan runs dry the breast turns to sawdust in a matter of minutes.
- "Roast" means stovetop hereThe birds brown in a stewpan just large enough to hold them, turned once. Use a heavy pan over medium heat, and if you prefer the oven, brown in the pan first and finish uncovered at 425F for a similar total time.
- Vine leavesFresh grape leaves were available to Victorian households with a vinery or walled garden, though how widely is hard to say. Brined leaves from a jar work if rinsed and patted dry; the flavour contribution is slight and the leaf can be left out with no real loss.
- Fat baconThis means unsmoked fat streaky bacon or sheets of pork back fat, not modern thin-cut smoked rashers, which will scorch and overwhelm the bird. Fatback or unsmoked pancetta is the closest thing on a modern counter.
- Thick cream and a cupfulThick cream here means a rich cream of roughly double-cream richness; US heavy cream is the nearest substitute. A cupful in this period is imprecise, somewhere in the region of 8 to 10 fl oz, and it is best added off direct heat so it warms through rather than splitting.
- Fifteen minutes, then restA quarter of an hour suits a small wild bird of about 12 oz cooked pink at the breast. Farmed partridge and chukar run larger and may want 18-20 minutes. The recipe pours the cream over at once; if you prefer, rest the birds briefly first.
- Sourcing the birdsGrey and red-legged partridge are seasonal game in Britain; in North America, farmed chukar sold frozen is the practical stand-in. Wild birds may carry shot, so warn anyone at the table.
- Browned crumbsFried breadcrumbs are the classic English game garnish. Fry coarse dry crumbs in clarified butter until deep gold and drain them; scatter at the last second or the cream will soften them.
- YieldA brace for four or five people is lean by modern appetites. Count one bird per person for a main course, or half a bird with the cream sauce as a first course.
The German label points to the finish rather than the bird: sour or sweet cream poured over roasted game, with fried crumbs on top, is a fixture of German and Austrian cookery, where Rahm sauces attend hare, venison and partridge alike. The barding with vine leaf and bacon was a standard treatment for small game birds in the period and one still followed for grouse. The price note is a good marker of the book's audience: three shillings a brace was a real but not extravagant outlay in a household that also bought oysters and cream by the pint, and partridge reached market in quantity between September and the end of January, when the shooting season and the cook's calendar overlapped.