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PARTRIDGES, SOUP OF (another way)

When partridges are too old to be satisfactorily cooked in any other way, they may be made into soup, but it must be understood that the soup will not be so good as if it were made from young birds. Skin the partridges and cut them into joints. Fry them in butter with two sliced onions until lightly browned. Put them into a saucepan with three ounces of uncooked lean ham and four or five sticks of celery, and pour over them two quarts of good stock. Bring the soup to a boil, skim carefully, then draw it to the side of the fire, and let it simmer gently for an hour. At the end of that time put into it a tea-spoonful of salt and half a tea-spoonful of peppercorns, and stew another hour. Strain the soup, pick the meat from the birds, and pound it in a mortar to a smooth paste, and with it its bulk in bread, which has been soaked in stock and pressed very dry. Mix this gradually with the soup, pass it again through a sieve, put it into a saucepan, bring it to the point of boiling, and serve immediately. Probable cost, 1s. 10d. per quart. Sufficient for half a dozen persons.