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Stewed Partridges

Procure three partridges, old ones will do, lard them, and truss them as for boiling. Line a stewpan with slices of fat bacon, put in the partridges, breasts down-wards, with a slice of lean veal, a bunch of sweet herbs, and a few chopped savory vegetables; pour in a teacupful each of gravy and white wine. Let all cook over a slow fire for an hour and a half; then place the partridges on a hot dish, strain their cooking liquor over them, garnish with cut lemons and fried parsley, and serve.

Stewed Partridges, Chipolata Cut a partridge into quarters, put it into a pan with butter, and fry it until brown, dusting it over with flour. Put in two dozen small onions, one-half pound of sausages cut into thin slices and fried, six chopped mushrooms, and twelve roasted chestnuts; add seasoning to taste, pour in two or three wineglassfuls of white wine, and stew till all is tender. Thicken the sauce, turn the whole onto a dish, and serve with croutons of fried bread. Stewed Partridges, Montmorency Truss some young partridges as for stewed partridges, Spanish style. Dip the breasts into boiling water to make them firm, then plunge them into cold water, and lard them with bacon. Put some slices of fat bacon at the bottom of the stewpan, put the partridges in, put some more rashers of fat bacon on the top of them, and moisten to half their height with fowl broth. Stand the pan over a brisk fire for a few minutes, then move to the side and cook slowly for twenty minutes. Glaze, take them out, drain, and glaze again. Put them on a hot dish, and serve with a Dutch sauce.

Stewed Partridges, Spanish Style Pluck two or three partridges carefully so as not to injure the skin, clean them, cut off the sinew that is under the joints of the legs, and skewer the legs up towards the breast. Fill a needle with packthread, run it through the stump of the right wing, then through the thick joint of the leg, next across the body, and then again through the other stump; then tighten the packthread and fasten the knot. Run the needle through from the back to the side beneath the leg, and then above the pinion below the breast, so as to perforate the breast bone, let the needle come out from the part parallel to that where it was first introduced, then through the side to the back, and then fasten the packthread. Care should be taken to give the birds as nice a shape as possible. Put some slices of bacon at the bottom of a large stewpan, put the partridges in, cover them with more bacon, pour in some rich fowl broth, cover, and cook for twenty minutes over a slow fire. When done drain them, place on a hot dish, pour over some Spanish sauce in which has been mixed a little glaze, and serve.

How to Truss Pheasants, Etc Pheasants are trussed in the same manner as fowls, and so are partridges and grouse, with the exception that, like all small wild fowl, the legs are crossed and the heads skinned and threaded on skewers through the pinions; pigeons and other birds of a similar size are trussed in such a manner as to make the breasts plump out.

Snipe and woodcock are trussed in France by thrusting the long beak through the body and fastening the wings under the thighs; woodcocks are sometimes trussed with the head "hooded," as it is called, under the skin of the breast.