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PARTRIDGES, SALMI OF (another way)
When the partridges are roasted expressly for the salmi, they ought to be underdone, and they should not be cut up until they are quite cold. A very good salmi, however, may be made of the remains of cold partridge. Cut the birds into neat joints, carefully remove the skin, fat, and sinew, and put the good pieces aside. Bruise the remainder, and put it, with the skin, bones, and trimmings, into a saucepan. Add two shallots, a bay-leaf, three or four sprigs of parsley, and an ounce of fresh butter, and stir these about over a gentle fire until they are lightly browned. Sprinkle over them a table-spoonful of flour, and pour in three-quarters of a pint of veal stock and a glassful of sherry; put in half a dozen peppercorns, a little salt, and half a blade of mace and simmer the gravy very gently until it is considerably reduced. Strain it, and let it boil up again; then put in the pieces of partridge, and when they are quite hot, serve on a hot dish, with the gravy poured over them. If liked, the livers of the birds may be pounded, and mixed with the sauce. Garnish with toasted sippets. Time, an hour and a half to simmer the gravy. Probable cost, 1s., exclusive of the partridge. Sufficient for two or three-persons.
A salmi is a two-stage dish: the carcass and trimmings make the sauce, the good joints are only warmed through in it. Everything depends on not cooking the meat a second time.
- The hingeThe pieces of partridge go into the strained, boiling sauce only until they are hot — two or three minutes at most. Simmering them properly will dry the breast to string, which is why the recipe insists the birds be underdone to begin with.
- Cold birds, then jointingCarving warm game tears the fibres and loses juice. Roast the birds rare, cool them completely (overnight in the refrigerator is fine), then joint them; the flesh comes away cleanly and the skin strips off in one piece.
- Imperial liquid measuresThree-quarters of an Imperial pint is 15 fl oz, a little under 2 cups US. A "glassful" of sherry means a wine glass of the period, roughly 2 to 2½ fl oz — use a scant third of a cup, dry amontillado or oloroso rather than cream sherry.
- Veal stockA light brown veal stock was a standing item in a Victorian kitchen. A good unsalted chicken stock reduced by a third, or a mixture of chicken stock with a spoonful of demi-glace, gives the body intended here. Salt at the end, since the sauce reduces hard.
- Mace and peppercornsHalf a blade of mace is a fragment of the lacy husk of nutmeg, still sold whole in spice shops; a pinch of ground mace substitutes, added late. The whole peppercorns are strained out, so they give a milder warmth than ground pepper would.
- The simmering timeAn hour and a half over a gentle fire is a genuine reduction, not a mistake — the point is to concentrate 2 cups of stock down to a scant cup of sauce that coats. Watch it after the first hour and stop when it thickly coats a spoon.
- The liversPounded liver enriches and thickens the sauce, but it must be whisked in off the boil and only warmed through; boiled liver turns granular. Modern practice is to sieve it in with a little of the hot sauce.
- SippetsSmall pieces of bread, toasted or fried in butter, set round the edge of the dish. They soak up the sauce and were a common garnish for dishes served in gravy.
- YieldTwo or three servings, as stated. The 'probable cost, 1s.' is expressly exclusive of the partridge.
Salmi (also salmis) is a French kitchen term, generally traced to salmigondis, the same word behind English "salmagundi," meaning a hash or medley. In classical practice it was the standard way to treat roasted game a second time: the bones and trimmings are browned and simmered into a strong sauce, the prime joints reheated in it at the last moment. Cassell's gives the dish twice — this being the "another way" — which tells you how routine it was in a late-Victorian house where partridge arrived in braces during the autumn shooting season and nothing shot was wasted. The frank admission that "a very good salmi may be made of the remains of cold partridge" is the real point of the entry: this is a leftovers recipe dressed in French clothing, and none the worse for it.