No. 2103

Partridges with Olives

Perdreaux aux Olives

Lard two good-sized partridges with fine larding pork (No. 3, Fig. 52), and put them into a narrow saucepan lined with fragments of the same pork, minced roots and onions; season and moisten with a little white wine, then reduce to a glaze. Cook the partridges in very little moisture with stock (No. 194a), having it fall several times to a glaze. After the partridges are nicely done, drain them off to untruss. Strain the stock, skim off its fat and reduce, then incorporate it into brown sauce (No. 414) in the act of being reduced with two spoonfuls of Madeira added at the same time. Dress the partridges on a dish, surround with a garnishing of olives stuffed with baked forcemeat (No. 81), then poached and covered over with some of the sauce; serve the rest in a sauce-boat.

← No. 2102 Partridges Larded and Roasted with Gravy and Partridge, Pheasant & Grouse No. 2104 Partridge with Sauerkraut →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

Ranhofer writes for a professional brigade with a stock pot always going and a numbered index of foundation preparations at hand. Translated, this is a braise of larded partridge in a very small amount of liquid, repeatedly reduced to a glaze, finished with a Madeira-spiked brown sauce and garnished with forcemeat-stuffed olives.

The hinge: cook nearly dry"Very little moisture" and "fall several times to a glaze" is the whole technique. Add stock a few spoonfuls at a time and let it cook down to a sticky film on the pan before adding more; that repeated caramelisation, deglazed by the next addition, is what builds the sauce. Flooding the pan gives you boiled bird and thin gravy.
Larding porkFine larding pork is fresh unsmoked back fat or fatback cut into thin lardons and threaded through the breast with a larding needle. Barding, wrapping the birds in thin sheets of fatback or unsmoked streaky bacon tied on with string, does the same job and is far easier. Partridge is extremely lean and will dry out without it.
The vesselA "narrow saucepan" means a pot only just wider than the two birds, so the small quantity of liquid stays deep enough to glaze rather than scorch. A snug enamelled cast-iron cocotte with a lid is the modern equivalent.
The referenced numbersNo. 194a is one of Ranhofer's stocks and No. 414 his brown sauce, which in this system is an espagnole-type flour-thickened brown sauce; No. 81 is his baked forcemeat. A good reduced brown veal stock, or a demi-glace, stands in for the first two, and any fine forcemeat firm enough to pipe will do for the third.
The olivesUse large firm green olives, pitted with an olive stoner so they stay whole. Blanch them in boiling water a minute or two first to pull out brine; unblanched modern olives will make the finished sauce aggressively salty. Pipe in the forcemeat, then poach the stuffed olives gently in stock for a few minutes, never at a boil.
Spoonfuls of MadeiraRead the "two spoonfuls" as roughly two tablespoons. Use a dry or medium-dry Madeira such as Sercial or Verdelho; the cream-style bottlings sold for cooking will push the sauce sweet.
Timing and donenessModern grey-leg or farmed partridge at 12-14 oz each will be done in roughly 25-35 minutes in a covered pan over low heat. The breast is best at medium, around 145-150F; taken to the falling-apart stage the meat turns dry and livery.
Untrussing and yield"Untruss" simply means cut and pull out the trussing string before plating. Two birds serve two generously, or four as part of a longer menu; carve into legs and breasts if you want it to stretch.
SubstitutesIf partridge is unavailable, quail (two per person, much shorter cooking) or a small poussin will take the same treatment; both are lean and still want barding.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, and this entry sits in a long run of numbered partridge preparations that a chef would work through as the season and the market allowed. The pairing of a braised bird with green olives is a French provincial habit, most familiar in canard aux olives and usually associated with the Provencal and Languedoc kitchens, where the olive supplied salt and a bitter edge to rich dark meat; Ranhofer elaborates it in the grande cuisine manner by hollowing each olive and refilling it with forcemeat, so the garnish becomes a small composed dish of its own. The cross-references to numbered stocks, sauces and forcemeats are the book's defining feature and give a fair picture of how a large nineteenth-century hotel kitchen functioned: much of the groundwork -- the brown sauce, the glaze, the farce -- stood ready in advance rather than being begun at the moment of service.