No. 2096

Partridges a la Matignon, Garnished with "pains" a la Montglas—

Perdreaux a la Matignon Garnis de Pains a la Montglas

Prepare and truss two partridges as for an entree as in No. 178. Wrap the two partridges with dry matignon (No. 406) in several sheets of paper; roast and when done, unwrap and place the matignon in a saucepan with some clear gravy (No. 404) and espagnole sauce (No. 414); reduce, despumate and strain through a tammy. Butter twelve mousseline molds (No. 1, Fig. 138), decorate them with fanciful cuts of truffles, and cover the entire inside with a layer of partridge quenelle forcemeat (No. 91), filling the center as far up as the edges with a montglas prepared as follows: Cut off the white meats from half of a roasted partridge; have as many mushrooms heads cut the same size, and half as many truffles as mushrooms, also as much cooked beef tongue as truffles; mingle these with a little supreme sauce (No. 547), when the molds are full finish with more forcemeat. Put some boiling water in a saucepan to reach to a third of the height of the molds and poach these in a slack oven for fifteen to twenty minutes. Dress the partridges, glaze and lay them on top of an oval rice foundation (Fig. 9a); unmold the montglas pains around, and cover over with some of the sauce having the rest served apart.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with stockpots already going; the work here is assembly, and it collapses to a manageable job if you make the espagnole and supreme in advance. The hinge is the poaching of the little forcemeat moulds — they must set in barely-trembling water, never a simmer, or the quenelle mixture curdles and weeps.

MatignonA cooked aromatic mixture — carrot, onion, celery, thyme and bay sweated in butter with raw ham, moistened with Madeira and reduced dry. "Dry" matignon means the liquid is cooked away so it can be packed against the birds as a coating rather than a sauce.
Wrapped in paperPaper-wrapped roasting: the recipe calls only for several sheets of paper round the birds and their matignon, to hold the matignon in place and stop the lean birds drying. Buttered parchment, or parchment with an outer layer of foil, does the same job; the point is that the paper must not catch fire, so keep it off the oven floor and element.
Roasting the birdsRanhofer gives neither time nor temperature. Wrapped partridges of about 12 oz will take roughly 30-35 minutes in a hot oven (around 400F), then a rest; aim for about 160-165F at the thickest part of the breast — game birds this small go from underdone to dry within a few minutes.
"Slack oven" for the painsAround 275-300F. The moulds sit in a water bath filled to a third of their height; the water should stay below a simmer for the fifteen to twenty minutes given.
Mousseline mouldsSmall dariole or timbale moulds of about 2 fl oz. Twelve of them is what the quantities suit; butter them well and chill the truffle decoration in place before lining with forcemeat, or the cuts shift.
MontglasThe classic garnish of equal-sized dice or batons — here partridge breast, mushroom caps, truffle and cooked beef tongue, in the proportions Ranhofer gives: as many mushroom heads as pieces of partridge, half as many truffles as mushrooms, and as much tongue as truffle — bound with a little sauce. Ox tongue from a good butcher or a deli is the practical substitute; the truffle can be reduced to a fraction of a fresh one, or a very small quantity of preserved truffle.
Despumate and tammyDespumate means to skim the scum and fat that rise as the sauce reduces. A tammy was a woven cloth; a fine chinois with a ladle pressed through it gives the same result with less swearing.
Rice foundationA moulded, compressed bed of cooked rice used as a plinth so the birds sit above the sauce. It is presentation, not eating; a shallow oval of firm pilaf works, or simply serve the birds carved onto warmed plates with the pains around.
YieldTwo partridges serve two generously or four modestly once carved, plus the twelve pains. Half the pains is plenty for four people, and the montglas mixture scales down cleanly.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and the book is essentially the working repertoire of a French kitchen operating on American ingredients — hence the cross-references to numbered sauces and forcemeats, which is how a brigade actually cooked. Both garnishes in the title are traditionally said to be named after people: matignon is generally traced to the Matignon family of the French aristocracy, and à la Montglas is usually linked to the Marquis de Montglas, though both attributions are culinary tradition rather than documented fact. The mixture of tongue, truffle, mushroom and poultry under that name appears across nineteenth-century French cookery in vol-au-vents, timbales and stuffed eggs as well as in moulded pains like these. Partridge in this period was a market bird rather than a rarity: American writers of the period often used the word loosely for grouse and quail as well as true partridge, and a restaurant like Delmonico's bought wild game in quantity from suppliers before the game laws of the following decades closed most of that trade.