Partridge, Roast
INGREDIENTS. -Partridges; butter.
Choose young birds, with dark-coloured bills and yellowish legs, and let them hang a few days, or there will be no flavour to the flesh, nor will it be tender. The time they should be kept entirely depends on the taste of those for whom they are intended, as what some persons would consider delicious would be to others disgusting and offensive. Pluck, draw and wipe the partridge inside and out, cut off the head, leaving enough skin to skewer back; ROAST PARTRIDGE. bring the legs close to the breast, between it and the side bones, and pass a skewer through the pinions and the thick part of the thighs. When the bird is firmly and plumply trussed, roast it before a nice bright fire; keep it well basted, and, a few minutes before serving, flour and froth it well. Dish it, and serve with gravy and bread sa sauce, and send to table hot hot and quickly. A little of the gravy should be poured over the bird.
TIME.-25 to 35 minutes. ridges, and serve.
TIME.-2 hours..
SEASONABLE from September to February.
Note. The meat of the partridges may be pounded with the crumb of a French roll, and worked with the soup through a sieve.
Written for a bird turned on a spit before an open fire, this converts to a hot oven with very little loss, provided you deal with the fact that a partridge carries almost no fat.
- Oven equivalentA "nice bright fire" is the equivalent of a hot oven: 425-450F. Give a young grey partridge 25-30 minutes at that heat, a larger red-leg up to 35, then rest it 8-10 minutes before carving.
- Basting and bardingPartridge is very lean and dries out quickly. Lay a thin sheet of pork fat or two rashers of streaky bacon over the breast for the first two-thirds of the cooking, then remove it so the skin can colour, and baste with butter throughout.
- "Flour and froth it"This is the hinge of the method. In the last few minutes you dust the bird with flour and baste at once with hot butter; the flour absorbs the fat and blisters into a thin, crisp, freckled crust. Do it too early and it simply goes pasty.
- HangingThe instruction to hang the birds a few days assumes a cold larder in autumn. Game bought today has usually been hung already; if you have birds in the feather, keep them uncovered in a refrigerator no warmer than 40F and count days from the shooting date, not from purchase.
- Judging a young birdDark bill and yellowish legs identify a young grey partridge. Leg colour is an unreliable guide in the red-legged partridge, now the more numerous bird in Britain, so judge those by size, a pliable breastbone tip and soft, unworn feet.
- TrussingModern butchers sell partridge oven-ready and often trussed with string, which serves the same purpose as the skewer through pinions and thighs: it holds the legs against the breast so the thighs cook in the time the breast takes.
- DonenessTraditional service leaves the breast faintly pink, around 135-140F at the thickest point. If you prefer poultry cooked through, take it to 165F and accept a drier breast; the legs benefit from the extra time either way.
- Accompaniments and yieldBread sauce and a thin gravy made from the giblets and pan juices are the classic pairing, with fried breadcrumbs or game chips. Allow one bird per person; a large red-leg will stretch to two light eaters.
Partridge was a common game bird of the English shooting season and appeared on middle-class tables, prized because it needed no sauce beyond bread and gravy. The passage on hanging is the most revealing part of the entry: before refrigeration, game was deliberately held until it began to soften and take on flavour, and the point at which that became unpleasant was purely a matter of household taste, which is why the book declines to name a number of days. The "SEASONABLE from September to February" line reflects the statutory British game season for partridge, which still runs from 1 September to 1 February. Reared red-legged partridge now dominates the market, so birds reaching the kitchen tend to be younger, fatter and blander than the wild greys this recipe assumes, which makes the barding and basting more necessary rather than less.