No. 2100

Partridges Truffled and Roasted

Perdreaux Truffes et Rotis

Draw two young partridges, wipe them well and singe. Peel five or six raw truffles, cut them in four and season; chop up the peelings and pound them with fresh fat pork, adding to it the cooked partridge livers with two or three pullet livers; season the preparation and press it through a sieve. Melt a quarter of a pound of grated fat pork, add to it the cut up truffles, season and warm up for a few seconds while tossing over the fire, then mix them in with the forcemeat. After this preparation has cooled off, use it to fill the partridge breasts and bodies; sew up the openings, truss and cover or else lard them with fine larding pork (No. 3, Fig. 52), fasten them on the spit and roast for fifteen to twenty minutes in front of a good fire, basting over with butter. As soon as they are done sprinkle salt over and remove from the spit; untruss and dress each one on a large crust of bread browned in butter and laid on an oval dish; surround the partridges with sliced lemons only, serving water-cress separately, also some clear gravy (No. 404).

← No. 2099 Partridges Broiled—Colbert Sauce Partridge, Pheasant & Grouse No. 2101 Partridges with Cabbage →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a spit before an open fire, a game dealer, and a cook who thinks nothing of six raw truffles for two birds. The dish translates well to an oven, but the stuffing needs attention.

The hinge: cook to the stuffing, not the birdFifteen to twenty minutes suits a bare partridge, but here the cavity holds a raw pork-and-liver forcemeat. Take the temperature at the centre of the stuffing and look for 165F, which usually means 25-35 minutes at 425-450F for birds this size; rest the birds 10 minutes before carving.
TrufflesProbably fresh black truffles, peeled because the skin is gritty and coarse; Ranhofer does not name the variety. Five or six raw truffles is an extravagance now; a couple of ounces, chopped, with a spoon of the soaking or jarred juice added to the forcemeat, will stand in at a bearable price, though it is markedly less truffle than the recipe calls for. Summer truffles and truffle oil will not carry the dish.
Fat porkFresh unsalted pork fatback rather than salt pork or bacon. To grate it, freeze it firm and use a box grater, or pulse it cold in a processor. A quarter pound with the peelings, livers and the cut truffles makes a generous filling for two birds.
Larding porkThe cross-reference is to Ranhofer's lardons cut for a larding needle. Barding is simpler and does the same job: wrap each breast in a thin sheet of fatback or caul fat and tie, removing it for the last five minutes to colour the skin.
Spit to oven"A good fire" is a hot, direct heat with constant basting. In an oven, use 450F on a rack over a shallow pan, baste with butter every five minutes, and turn the birds breast-down for the first third so the legs face the heat.
Clear gravy, No. 404A strained, ungarnished brown game or veal jus, not a thickened sauce. Any well-reduced brown stock, degreased and seasoned, serves; a splash of Madeira suits the truffles.
The crustA thick oval slice of firm white bread fried in clarified butter until brown on both sides, one per bird, wide enough to hold the partridge and catch the juices. Fry it while the birds rest.
Sourcing and yieldGrey and chukar partridge are sold farm-raised through game dealers and by mail order, usually around 12-16 oz each; young birds are what the recipe wants, older ones generally being better braised, as in No. 2101. Two stuffed birds serve two generously or four as a course.

A Little History

Truffling a bird before roasting was the standard nineteenth-century show of luxury in French kitchens, and Ranhofer, who ran Delmonico's in New York from the 1860s to the 1890s, put it into The Epicurean (1894) because his clientele expected Parisian practice. The technique of pounding the truffle peelings with fat pork and liver rather than throwing them away is thoroughly professional thrift: the peel is aromatic, and the forcemeat perfumes the flesh from inside while the bird roasts. Partridge appears throughout the book because American game markets of the period sold wild birds freely, often labelled loosely, and a restaurant could count on a supply that later game laws largely ended. The spit set in front of the fire, rather than a closed oven, was often preferred for roasting a small bird, and Ranhofer is careful to say salt goes on only at the end: as soon as they are done, sprinkle salt over.