No. 2298

Partridge Hash a la Clemenceau

Hachis de Perdreaux a la Clemenceau

Roast two partridges on the spit; lay them aside to cool, then lift off the breasts, suppressing the skin, bones and sinews; cut these meats into eighth of an inch squares, having half as much mushrooms cut the same size, and as many peeled truffles as mushrooms; add to it the cooked livers, cut exactly a like size. Make a light roux (No. 163), add to it the gizzards and broken up carcasses, one bay leaf, sage, cloves and minced shallot; fry together with the roux, moisten with a quart of stock (No. 194a), reduce to half and pass it through a tammy without pressure, then again reduce well and add the salpicon; heat up without boiling, season properly and dress the hash inside a potato border; bestrew the top with bread-crumbs and parmesan, pour over butter and brown under the salmander (Fig. 123). This hash may be accompanied by poached eggs laid on round slices of toasted bread to be handed around at the same time, and it may also be served without the border, surrounding it simply with croutons of bread fried in oil.

← No. 2297 Hashed Mutton a la Omer Pacha Miscellaneous Entrées No. 2299 Hashed Pheasant →

For the Modern Kitchen

A classic escoffier-era hash: roast game, diced fine, bound in a sauce built from its own carcass. Most of the work is in the sauce, and the one rule that governs the dish is that the meat never boils once it goes in.

The hinge: heat without boilingThe diced breast is already cooked; boiling it in the sauce turns partridge stringy and dries out the livers. Bring the reduced sauce to a bare steam, fold in the salpicon, and hold it just hot enough to serve.
Roasting the birdsA spit is not required. Truss and roast two partridges at around 425F for roughly 20-25 minutes, then rest and cool before boning. Standard poultry guidance is an internal 165F; the reheat in sauce is deliberately kept below a simmer, so do not rely on it to finish meat left underdone.
Partridge substitutionTwo dressed partridges yield only about 6-8 oz of trimmed breast meat. Quail (four birds) or a pair of poussins work; the carcasses matter as much as the meat, so buy whole birds rather than breasts.
SalpiconA mixture of ingredients cut into uniform small dice and bound with sauce; the term is well established in French cookery long before Ranhofer or Escoffier. Here the cut is specified as one-eighth inch, and it should be honoured: the texture of the dish depends on the dice being even.
The cross-referencesNo. 163 is the roux the recipe points to, cooked to a light blond; No. 194a is the stock it points to, though the recipe says only 'stock', so read the identification as inference. Substitute a good brown veal or game stock and a light roux, about 2 tablespoons each of butter and flour per quart.
Tammy without pressureA tammy is a fine woollen or cloth strainer. Pass the sauce through a fine chinois or a sieve lined with muslin and let it drip; forcing it pushes through bone grit and bitter solids from the crushed carcasses.
SalamanderAn overhead broiler. Run the dish under a hot broiler a few inches from the element until the crumbs and parmesan colour, two to three minutes, watching it constantly.
Potato borderMost likely duchesse potato piped around the rim of a gratin dish and lightly dried in the oven before the hash goes in, though the recipe specifies nothing beyond 'potato border'. The crouton version at the end of the recipe is the simpler and quicker route.
YieldAs written this serves four as a first course, or two as a main with the poached egg and toast. The sauce should reduce to a napping consistency, roughly a cup after both reductions.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is his encyclopaedic record of what that kitchen cooked. Dishes named for public figures were the house's stock in trade, and Georges Clemenceau — journalist, radical deputy, later twice premier of France — spent time in New York in the 1860s and was a familiar name to Delmonico's clientele; a garnish or hash bearing his name flatters a diner's sense of being current. The recipe itself belongs to an older tradition than its name: hashes of cold roast game, extended with mushrooms and truffles and bound with a sauce drawn from the bones, were a standard way for a professional kitchen to make a second service out of yesterday's roast. The potato border and the crumb-and-parmesan gratin are the marks of a restaurant rather than a home cook, where a hash could be sent out looking composed rather than reheated.