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Broiled Partridge
Cut necks and feet off two fat, tender partridges. Split open through back, remove spinal bones, draw, envelop in coarse towel and neatly flatten with a cleaver. Mix on a plate a tablespoon oil, teaspoon salt, half teaspoon pepper, and repeatedly turn birds in seasoning, arrange on a double broiler, broil for ten minutes on each side, remove and dress on hot dish. Mix on a plate a half ounce butter, a tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, teaspoon French mustard and the juice of quarter of a sound lemon, spread over partridge and serve with the grilled apples.
A spatchcocked game bird, seasoned twice: once with oil and salt before the fire, once with a cold compound butter after. The second dressing is the point of the dish and should not be skipped.
- Sourcing the birdWild partridge cannot be legally sold in the United States; what you buy will be farmed chukar, red-legged partridge or Hungarian partridge, generally 12-16 oz dressed. A poussin or Cornish hen of similar weight behaves much the same under the broiler.
- "Draw" and "split through the back"Drawing means removing the viscera; birds bought today arrive drawn. Splitting through the back and lifting out the spine is spatchcocking, and the flattening with a cleaver is to make the thickness even so the breast and thigh finish together.
- A double broilerNot a double boiler. This is a hinged wire grill basket that clamps the bird between two grids so it can be turned as a unit. A rack set close under a preheated overhead broiler works, or a hot grill.
- Ten minutes a sideThat assumes an open fire or coal broiler and a bird under a pound. Under a modern broiler at high heat, check at six or seven minutes a side. Poultry is safe at 165F in the thickest part of the thigh; partridge is very lean and turns to sawdust past that.
- French mustardDijon, smooth and sharp. American yellow mustard is a different, sweeter, turmeric-heavy thing and will read wrong against the Worcestershire.
- Half ounce butterOne tablespoon. Have it soft, not melted, so the mustard, Worcestershire and lemon emulsify into a paste that clings rather than running off onto the platter.
- Grilled applesThe definite article points to a separate preparation elsewhere in the book; the recipe itself gives no detail. Firm apple rings or halves browned on the grill or under the broiler will serve, and a tart cooking apple holds its shape best.
- YieldTwo birds serve two as a main course, or four as a first course if halved.
The book is the work of Alexander Filippini, long a chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry shows the restaurant grill cook's habit of finishing plainly broiled meat with a cold seasoned butter at the moment of service. The Worcestershire-mustard-lemon mixture is essentially the dressing used for grilled devilled meats and bones, a Victorian and Edwardian staple that sharpened otherwise dry broiled protein. "Partridge" was a slippery word in American kitchens of the period: in the Northeast it commonly meant ruffed grouse, in the South bobwhite quail, and to European-trained chefs the gray or red-legged partridge of the Old World. All of them are small, lean, fast-cooking birds, which is why the recipe splits and flattens rather than roasting whole. Apples with game is an old northern European pairing, generally traced to the same logic that puts them with pork and goose: acid and sugar against rich or dry meat.