Partridges a la Jules Verne-Breasts or Fillets

Fasten a wooden foundation on a dish having it slightly sloped and channeled all around, then cover it entirely with cooked paste (No. 131). On the center of this foundation attach a tin basket covered over with more of the same paste, embossed and decorated with a pretty hanging border; the empty space in the basket is filled with a crouton of fried bread covered with a layer of the same paste. The three partridge heads must retain their own feathers and should be selected as fresh as possible; to keep them in a proper position, penetrate the necks with a wire sufficiently thick to uphold them thrusting the other end of the wire into the piece of bread prepared for this purpose in the basket; between each head is also fastened a small paper case filled with a truffle. Raise the breasts from five or six partridges without the minion fillets; suppress the skin, beat them to flatten and pare with the same care as is bestowed on a chicken fillet, then season and place them at once in a sautoir with clarified butter, at the last moment poach the breasts over a good fire turning them around, they should be kept rare, then drained, wiped free of butter and on each wide end place a round piece of truffle cut out with a round cutter and covered on one side with a very thin layer of raw forcemeat to make it adhere. Dress these breasts in a circle the pointed ends downward on the paste-covered foundation cover them lightly with a little good veloute sauce (No. 415), reduced with partridge fumet (No. 397) and serve with a sauce-boatful of the same.