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Ptarmigan, to Carve
Ptarmitrussed in the same manner as the red bird, may be carved in the manner described in Partridge and Grouse carving.
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PTARMIGAN, TO DRESS.
Ptarmigan, To Dress the.
INGREDIENTS.-2 or 3 birds; butter, flour, fried bread-crumbs. AVERAGE COST, 2s. 6d. per brace.
The ptarmigan, or white grouse, when young and tender, are exceedingly fine eating, and should be kept as long as possible, to be good. Pluck, draw and truss them in the same manner as grouse, and roast them 331 PUDDINGS, RECIPES FOR.
Sweeten the milk with lump sugar, add a little grated lemon-rind, and stir to this the eggs, which should be well-whisked; line a buttered mould with the raisins, stoned and cut in half; spread the slices of cake with PTARMIGANS. before a brisk fire. Flour and froth them nicely, and serve on buttered toast, with a tureen of brown gravy. Bread sauce, when liked, may be sent to table with them, and fried bread-crumbs substituted for the toasted bread.
MOULDED PUDDING. the marmalade, and place them in the mould; then pour in the custard, tie the pudding down with paper and a cloth, and boil gently for 1 hour; when cold, turn it out, and serve.
TIME.-1 hour.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Pudding - Pies, Folkestone. - TIME. About hour.
SEASONABLE from the beginning of Feb- INGREDIENTS for 12 puddings.-1 pint of ruary to the end of April.
The usable instruction here is the roasting method for ptarmigan: plucked and trussed like grouse, roasted hard and fast, floured and frothed, and served on buttered toast with brown gravy. Everything hinges on not overcooking a very lean bird.
- Oven for a "brisk fire"The book gives no temperatures; a brisk fire means a fast, fierce roast, so a hot oven is the nearest modern equivalent. No time is given in the recipe either, but around 20-25 minutes is a reasonable modern guide for pink breast meat; the breast is almost fat-free and turns dry and livery quickly past that point.
- "Flour and froth them"This is the Victorian finish for roast game: dust the bird lightly with flour part-way through, then baste generously with hot butter so the flour blisters into a crisp, foamy brown skin. In a modern oven, baste every 5-6 minutes rather than continuously.
- Fried bread-crumbsCoarse dry crumbs fried in clarified butter until deep gold, drained, and salted. They are the substitute for the buttered toast, not an addition to it, and should be made just before serving or they soften.
- The toast underneathThe recipe says only to serve the bird on buttered toast; setting toast beneath a roasting game bird to catch the juices was a common practice of the period. If you cook the bird on a rack, toast the bread separately and spoon the pan juices over it.
- Hanging the birds"Kept as long as possible" meant days in a cold, airy larder, which no modern kitchen has. Age game birds only in a refrigerator at 34-40F, and only if they are intact and undamaged; discard anything with green discolouration or a sour smell rather than a clean gamey one.
- Sourcing and substitutionPtarmigan is wild shot game with a restricted season and is not sold in supermarkets; a game dealer is the only realistic source. Red grouse, wood pigeon breasts or quail take the same treatment, with quail needing about 15 minutes.
- Cost and yield2s. 6d. per brace is period pricing and tells you only that these were a moderate luxury. Allow one bird per person; two or three birds serve two to three people.
- CarvingThe birds are jointed exactly as partridge and grouse: split down the breastbone, then take off legs and wings, or simply halve a small bird lengthways through the breast and back.
Ptarmigan is the mountain grouse of the Scottish Highlands and the far north, white in winter and mottled grey-brown in summer, and it reached Victorian tables through the same railway trade in Scottish game that made grouse fashionable after the Glorious Twelfth. Beeton's household books treat it as a near-equivalent of red grouse throughout, which is why the instructions simply refer the cook back to the grouse and partridge entries for plucking, trussing and carving. The finish of flour, frothed butter, buttered toast, brown gravy, bread sauce and fried crumbs is the standard English service for all small roast game birds of the period, and survives largely unchanged in British game cookery today.