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Partridge Croustades
Truss eight partridges as for braising, fasten a thin slice of bacon on each one, put them in a stewpan with some mirepoix, stand them over a slow fire and simmer till done. Prepare fourteen truffles, eight cockscombs, and eight large crayfish as for garnish. Cut an oval shaped piece of bread, fry it, put it on a dish, and place a block of fried bread in the center. Drain the partridges when cooked, arrange them, necks downward, against the block of bread, and put a crayfish between each. Stick a silver skewer garnished with cockscombs and truffles in each bird, so as to form a circle, and place the remaining truffles inside the circle. Fill a silver casserole with a financiere garnishing that has had some Spanish sauce reduced with essence of partridge mixed with it, and serve.
Fillets of Partridges, Financiere Trim and lard the fillets of six partridges with thin strips of bacon, put them in a sautepan with a little melted glaze and cook them. Make a croustade of paste the same size as the dish on which the fillets are to be served and two inches deep. Prepare a financiere garnishing of foies gras, truffles, mushrooms, cockscombs and kernels and chicken forcemeat quenelles mixed in a financiere sauce. Trim the minion fillets into scallops and mix them in the garnishing, half of which should be turned into the croustade. Arrange the fillets on it in a circle, pile the remaining garnishing in the center, and serve with a sauceboatful of financiere sauce.
Fillets of Partridges, Toulouse Cut the fillets off six partridges and trim and curve them slightly; put the large ones in one buttered sautepan and the minion fillets in another. Stick a little piece of truffle with the white of an egg on the round ends of each of the small fillets. Fry the large fillets and when cooked drain and arrange them round a croustade on a hot dish. Cook the small fillets in the oven and when done put in a circle on the others. Fill the croustade with cocks' kernels mixed in supreme sauce, pour some supreme sauce over the fillets, and serve.
Three linked service pieces from the Waldorf's game repertoire, written for a brigade that had espagnole, supreme sauce and a truffle bin on hand. The cooking is simple; nearly all the work is in the garnish and the assembly.
- Mirepoix, 1896 senseUsually more than diced vegetables: a braising bed of carrot, onion, celery and herbs with raw ham or bacon trimmings, often moistened with a little stock or wine. The partridges sit on it and braise rather than boil outright.
- Spanish sauce and financiere"Spanish sauce" is sauce espagnole, the brown mother sauce. Financiere sauce is conventionally espagnole reduced with Madeira and truffle essence; here it is further sharpened with "essence of partridge," a concentrated partridge stock or reduced cooking liquor.
- Cockscombs and kernelsCockscombs are the blanched, peeled combs of the bird; "kernels" are cocks' testicles. Both were standard hotel garnish and are effectively unobtainable now. Omit them, or substitute small poached quenelles and button mushrooms, which is what the eye reads them as anyway.
- Minion filletsThe filets mignons are the two small strips lying under the breast fillets. Being much smaller they cook far faster, and the recipe keeps them in a pan of their own.
- Don't overcook the breastThis is the hinge. Whole birds of this size need far less time than a large braise, and the trimmed fillets only a few minutes a side. Partridge breast is very lean and turns dry and livery once pushed past done, so pull the birds early and let the sauce carry the moisture.
- Croustade of pasteA freestanding pastry case, baked blind, deep enough to hold garnish: two inches here, sized to the platter. Modern practice would build it from short paste or puff and bake it blind on a form until fully set, since a soft case collapses under hot ragout.
- Glaze"A little melted glaze" is glace de viande, stock reduced to a syrup. A tablespoon of demi-glace or a very reduced brown stock does the same job of basting and coating.
- Silver skewersThese are hatelets, ornamental skewers threaded with truffle and comb and pushed into the birds for presentation; they are decoration rather than food, and a plain arrangement of the garnish loses nothing but the theatre.
- YieldEight birds serve eight as a game course. The two fillet dishes, using six partridges each, serve six.
Oscar Tschirky's book, compiled under the name of the Waldorf's maitre d'hotel, shows the house at its most Escoffier-adjacent: a bird cooked plainly, then dressed with a garniture financiere whose name is conventionally read as "the financier's garnish," advertising expense, being built of foie gras, truffles, cockscombs and kernels in a Madeira-truffle sauce. Partridge was a fashionable American restaurant game bird in the period, before federal law curtailed the market trade in wild game in the early twentieth century, which is one reason such dishes now depend on farmed birds. The Toulouse version, with its supreme sauce and white garnish, is the pale counterpart to the brown financiere.