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Partridges with Cabbage
(Northern France.) Slice and parboil a head of cabbage. Lay it on a dish and on each piece a partridge, stuffed with sausage meat, mixed with some chopped herbs, 2 onions, 2 carrots, and 1/4 pound butter. Add 1 cup of stock and cover very closely; cook slowly for 2 hours. Arrange the cabbage on a dish with the birds on top and pour the gravy over all.
A classic French braise written in the telegraphic style of its period: the "dish" it names is really a heavy lidded pot, and almost everything hinges on how tightly it is sealed. A few points make the method legible.
- The vessel"Lay it on a dish" means a deep, heavy, tightly lidded pot — an enamelled cast-iron casserole or Dutch oven. With only 1 cup of stock for a two-hour cook, steam loss is the whole problem; if the lid is loose, lay a sheet of parchment or foil under it.
- Heat"Cook slowly" is not further specified, and the recipe names no oven. A low oven will give heat from all sides so nothing catches on the bottom; on the stovetop, keep it at the barest tremble.
- Parboiling the cabbageFive minutes in well-salted boiling water, then drained and squeezed dry. This removes the sulphurous edge and, more practically, collapses the volume so a head of cabbage will actually fit in the pot under the birds.
- PartridgesFarmed grey or red-legged partridge run roughly 12-18 oz each and are sold fresh in season or frozen by game dealers; figure one bird per person. Wild birds vary enormously in age, and a two-hour braise suits older, tougher ones. Young farmed birds will be dry at two hours -- an hour is closer to right, and barding the breasts with bacon or salt pork helps.
- SubstitutionsPoussin or Cornish hens of about 1 lb take the same treatment, though they lack the gamey depth the cabbage is meant to absorb. Quail are too small and will overcook long before the cabbage is done.
- The stuffingPlain bulk sausage meat, seasoned with chopped parsley, thyme and a little garlic. Pork sausage meat should reach 160F, which two hours of covered braising will comfortably achieve.
- The butter, onions and carrotsAs written, these read as part of the stuffing mixture. A quarter pound of butter and two whole carrots and onions are more than the birds will hold, so many cooks will prefer to scatter them among the cabbage, sliced rather than whole so they soften in the same time.
- The gravyWhat is left in the pot is buttery and thin. Lift out birds and cabbage, keep them warm, and boil the liquid hard for a few minutes to concentrate it before pouring over.
- YieldThe recipe gives no number of birds, only one per slice of cabbage. At one bird per person, a head of cabbage and the stuffing will serve four generously as a main course.
This is perdrix aux choux, a dish of the northern French and Belgian countryside long attested in French household cookery, and often said to follow the practical logic of the shooting season: partridges come in during autumn, when cabbages are at their best and old birds need long, wet heat to be edible at all. The pairing is functional as well as traditional: the cabbage takes on the game flavour, and the sausage meat supplies the richness a lean wild bird lacks.