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Hunter's Soup
Peel and cut into thin slices an equal quantity of carrots and onions, put them into a saucepan with a head of celery that has been washed and cut into small pieces, about two ounces of rather lean ham or bacon, a bunch of parsley and a small lump of butter. Fry all these until lightly browned, then dredge in a liberal quantity of flour and fry that also until browned. Stir in one pint of red wine and two quarts of broth, leave it over the fire until boiling, then move it to the side and let simmer. Clean and lay three partridges on a roasting pan and roast them in a brisk oven, basting well with butter. When the partridges are cooked, cut the flesh off the bones into nice equal-sized pieces. Break the bones into small pieces, put them into the soup, boil quickly for twenty minutes, then strain it through a fine hair sieve. Season the soup with salt and pepper, then return it to the saucepan with the pieces of partridge meat, and allow it to get thoroughly hot at the side of the fire, but do not let it boil again; then turn it into a soup tureen and serve it with a plate of sippets of toast or croutons of fried bread.
A game consommé built in two stages: a browned vegetable-and-flour base thickened into a light velvety broth, and roasted partridge whose carcasses give the stock its depth. The finished soup is a garnished broth, not a purée.
- Do not boil the finished soupOnce the strained soup is back on the heat with the picked meat in it, hold it below a simmer. Boiling toughens the already-roasted breast and clouds the broth you have just strained clear.
- A brisk ovenThe recipe gives no temperature; 'brisk' in period usage means a hot oven, so somewhere around 425-450F. Partridges are small and lean; roast hot and fast, basting, and take them to 165F in the thickest part of the breast. Overcooked partridge is dry and there is no rescuing it in the soup.
- Partridge, and what to use insteadFarmed partridge run about 12-16 oz each and are sold by game dealers and online butchers. Three quail (much smaller, so use five or six) or two Cornish hens will work, though hens give a milder, less gamey stock. Pheasant is closer in flavour but larger; one bird roughly replaces two partridges.
- A head of celeryIn this period that means the whole bunch, not a single rib. Trim the root and the coarsest leaf tops and use the rest, leaves included.
- "A liberal quantity of flour"For two quarts of broth plus a pint of wine, about 4-5 tablespoons gives a lightly bodied soup rather than a thick one; adjust to taste. Brown it properly in the fat with the vegetables before any liquid goes in, or the soup tastes pasty.
- The wineA dry red with some body — the sort of thing you would drink. A pint is generous against two quarts of broth, so let it boil down with the stock rather than adding it at the end.
- Breaking the bonesThis is the point of the recipe. Chop the carcasses small with a heavy knife or cleaver so the marrow and cut surfaces are exposed, then give them the full twenty minutes at a rolling boil. Whole carcasses steeped gently will not give the same flavour.
- StrainingA fine hair sieve was a horsehair mesh; a fine chinois or a sieve lined with damp muslin does the same work. Skim the fat off the surface afterwards — roasted birds basted in butter throw a good deal.
- SippetsSmall triangles or dice of bread; the recipe offers a choice of toasted sippets or croutons of fried bread, served separately so they do not soften in the tureen.
- YieldTwo quarts of broth plus wine, reduced somewhat, serves eight as a first course.
Hunter's soup is the English-language name used for game broths of this type -- potage chasseur, Jägersuppe -- that used the whole bird rather than just the breast: the meat carved off for garnish, the carcass broken up and boiled hard for flavour. That thrift is the recipe's logic, and it belongs to an era when partridge and grouse arrived at the kitchen door in feather rather than in a tray. In the United States the Lacey Act of 1900 and the migratory bird protections that followed curtailed the commercial trade in wild game, and birds like these now reach most kitchens farmed rather than wild.