1822—LIÈVRE EN DAUBE
Take a fresh hare, and bone it from the back without emptying it, that the skin of the belly may be untouched.
Detach the shoulders and the legs; do not touch the head; [577] season with salt and pepper; sprinkle with a few drops of brandy, and leave to marinade. With the hare’s liver, some fat bacon, and some truffle parings, prepare a gratin forcemeat. Prepare another forcemeat with the meat of the shoulders and the legs, an equal weight of fat bacon, one egg, a pinch of wild thyme, salt, pepper, spices, and the brandy of the marinade. Rub this forcemeat through a sieve, and add to it the gratin forcemeat, one-half lb. of fat bacon, and five oz. of truffles cut into dice.
Fill the boned hare with this preparation; sew it up, and tie the head to the back in such wise as to give the piece the appearance of the animal at rest.
Wrap it in slices of bacon, and set it in a terrine lined with the latter; sprinkle with a glassful of brandy, and place in the oven for thirty minutes with lid off.
Then pour into the terrine a fumet prepared with red wine from the hare’s bones; cover, and then cook in the oven gently for three hours.
Leave to half-cool; drain away the cooking-liquor, and carefully remove the slices of bacon. Strain the cooking-liquor through muslin; return it to the terrine, and fill up the latter with savoury jelly.
Keep in the cool for two hours before serving.
1823—PAIN DE LIÈVRE
This “Pain” is prepared according to No. 1689, and it may be served in “Belle-vue,” after the manner described for cold pieces prepared in this way.
1824—PÂTÉ DE LIÈVRE
Clear the fillets, the minion fillets, and the legs of all tendons; moderately lard them; season them; set them in a dish with an equal quantity of truffles and fat bacon strips; sprinkle with some brandy, and leave to marinade for one hour. With what remains of the meat, some fillets of veal and pork, in the proportion of six oz. per lb. of hare; fresh, fat bacon in the proportion of one and one-half lbs. per lb. of hare; and spiced salt, prepare a forcemeat, and finish it with one egg and three tablespoonfuls of brandy per lb. of forcemeat.
Rub through tammy, and add a portion of the hare’s blood.
Line a round or oval buttered mould with raised-pie paste, and completely cover the paste with slices of bacon. Then coat inside with forcemeat, and fill up the mould with alternate layers of forcemeat, hares’ fillets, truffle, and fat bacon strips.
[578]
Finish with a layer of forcemeat; cover with a slice of
bacon; sprinkle a pinch of powdered thyme and bay over the
latter; close the pie with a layer of paste, which should be
sealed down round the moistened edges; pinch the crest inside
and out, and finish off the pie by means of imitation leaves
made from paste.
Gild; bake in a moderate oven, and, when the pie is almost cold, pour some jelly flavoured with hare fumet into it.
1825—TERRINE DE LIÈVRE
A “Terrine” or Patty is only a pie without a crust, and it allows of the same forcemeat and of the same garnish of bacon strips as the latter. The terrine should first be lined with slices of bacon, whereupon it is garnished like the pie with alternate layers of forcemeat, bacon strips, hares’ fillets, and truffles.
Cover with a slice of bacon; sprinkle the centre of the latter with a little powdered thyme and bay, and a little spice. Put the lid on the terrine, place it in a saucepan containing a little water, and set it to cook in the oven.
The time allowed for cooking is naturally subject to the size of the terrine. It is known to be quite cooked when the grease which rises to the surface is quite clear.
As long as this grease is turbid, raw juices are still issuing from the forcemeat and the garnish inside. Another method of telling is by the insertion of a needle. If the latter withdraws evenly heated throughout its length, the terrine is cooked.
If the patty is to be served immediately, add some aspic to it when it is just tepid, and set it to cool under slight pressure. When quite cold, clear it of grease; trim its surface, and cut it up in the utensil.
If it is to be served whole and presented, set it to cool under greater pressure; turn it out, and trim it all round. This done, cause a layer of jelly to set on the bottom of the terrine; return the trimmed patty to the latter, and surround it with melted aspic jelly.
When about to serve, turn it out after the manner of an aspic; set it on a long dish, and border the latter with jelly croûtons.
If it have to be kept some time, proceed as above, but use lard instead of aspic, and keep it well covered and in the cool.
1826—YOUNG WILD RABBIT (LAPEREAUX)
Use the wild rather than the tame young rabbit, and test its age after the manner described in regard to the hare, and [579] also by means of a little lentil-shaped bone, which is to be found in the region of the patella.
As the wild rabbit ages, this bone shrinks and finally combines with the other bones of the articulation.
When the wild rabbit is old, it is tough, and can only be used for stock or forcemeats.
All the recipes given for “Poulet Sauté,” and those given for hare, may be applied to wild rabbit; the reader is, therefore, begged to refer to these.
1827—FEATHERED GAME
Feathered game comprises all esculent birds that live in freedom.
The number of species involved, therefore, is considerable, but from the culinary standpoint they may be grouped into ten principal classes, which are:—
- 1. The various pheasants, grey and red partridges, the Tetras Californias.
- 2. The hazel-hen, grouse, prairie fowls, ganga, sand-grouse.
- 3. The various wild ducks and teals.
- 4. The woodcocks and snipes.
- 5. The various plovers, lapwings, sandpipers, water-rails, water-hens.
- 6. The quails, land-rails, Virginia quails.
- 7. The various thrushes, Corsican blackbirds.
- 8. The various larks.
- 9. The warblers.
- 10. The ortolans.
The birds of Classes 1 and 4 are better high—that is to say, they should be hung for a few days, before being plucked, in a moderate draught, that they may begin to decompose, and that the particular flavour of their flesh may be accentuated, a process which increases their culinary value. Whatever opinion may be held in regard to the gaminess of these birds, one thing is quite certain—namely, that the meat of a fresh pheasant and that of a high one are two totally different things. When fresh, the meat is flavourless, whereas when it is reasonably high it is tender, full of taste, and of an incomparable flavour.
Formerly, it was the custom to lard the birds of Class 1, especially when they were to be roasted. But this practice should be resolutely discarded, for, if the bird be young, it can only impair the latter’s flavour, and, if it be old, it cannot possibly restore those qualities to it which it has already lost.
[580]
Besides, an old bird should never be served; it ought only
to be used in the preparation of game stock or forcemeats.
The birds belonging to the remaining classes are prepared fresh; or, if it be thought necessary to let them hang for a few days, at least they should not be allowed to get high, more particularly the aquatic ones, because gaminess is, if anything, deleterious to the flavour of their flesh.
1828—PHEASANT (FAISAN)
When this bird is young, its legs are grey and the ventral end of the sternum is tender and flexible. But with pheasants, as with partridges, an infallible sign of youth may be discovered at the extremity of the last large feather in the wing. If this feather be pointed, the bird is young; if it be round, the reverse is the case.
1829—FAISAN A LA MODE D’ALCANTARA
This recipe comes from the famous Alcantara convent. History tells us that at the beginning of the Portuguese campaign in 1807 the convent’s library was pillaged by Junot’s soldiers, and its precious manuscripts were used in the making of cartridges.
Now it happened that an officer of the commissariat who was witnessing the event found, among a collection of recipes selected by the monks, the particular one now under our notice, which was applied only to partridges.
It struck him as interesting, and after trying it when he returned to France in the following year, he surrendered it to the Duchess of Abrantès, who noted it in her memoirs.
It represents, perhaps, the only good thing the French derived from that unfortunate campaign, and it would tend to prove that foie gras and truffles, which had been known for so long in Languedoc and Gascony, were also known in Estremadura, where, even at the present day, tolerably good truffles are to be found.
The procedure is as follows:—
Empty the pheasant from the front; bone its breast, and stuff it with fine ducks’ foies gras, mixed with quartered truffles, cooked in port wine.
Marinade the pheasant for three days in port wine, taking care that it be well covered therewith. This done, cook it “en casserole” (the original recipe says on the spit, but the saucepan is more suitable). Reduce the port wine of the marinade; add to it a dozen medium-sized truffles; set the pheasant on these truffles, and heat for a further ten minutes.
[581]
N.B.—This last part of the recipe may be advantageously
replaced by the “à la Souvaroff” treatment—that is to say,
having placed the pheasant and the truffles in a terrine, sprinkle
them with the reduced port combined with slightly buttered
game glaze; then hermetically seal down the lid of the terrine,
and complete the cooking in the oven.
1830—FAISAN A L’ANGOUMOISE
Stuff the pheasant with a preparation consisting of two-thirds lb. of very fresh pork fat, rubbed through a sieve; four oz. of raw, peeled, and quartered truffles, and four oz. of fine chestnuts, cooked in consommé.
This preparation, which should be seasoned as for the ordinary truffling (No. 1956), ought to be quite cold when inserted into the pheasant.
Wrap the bird in slices of bacon; roast it gently for three-quarters of an hour, and take care to remove the slices of bacon seven or eight minutes before the cooking is completed, that the outside of the piece may be coloured.
Set on a long dish, and serve a Périgueux sauce at the same time.
1831—FAISAN A LA BOHÉMIENNE
Season a small foie gras with salt and paprika; stud it with raw quartered truffles, and poach it in Madeira for twenty minutes.
When it is cold, insert it into the pheasant, which should be high. Truss the bird, and cook it in butter in a saucepan or a cocotte for forty-five minutes. When about to serve, remove some of the butter used in cooking; sprinkle the pheasant with a glassful of burnt brandy, and add a few tablespoonfuls of reduced game gravy to the cooking-liquor.
Serve the pheasant in its cooking utensil.
1832—FAISAN EN CASSEROLE
Truss the pheasant as for an entrée, and poële it in butter only. This done, swill the saucepan with a few drops of brandy and a tablespoonful of game gravy.
Cover the utensil, and serve the dish burning hot.
1833—FAISAN EN COCOTTE
Proceed exactly as for pheasant “en casserole,” and, when the cooking is two-thirds done, surround it with a garnish of small onions cooked in butter; small, cooked mushroom-heads and olive-shaped truffles, the latter taking the place of the [582] potatoes, which are one of the garnishing ingredients of fowls “en cocotte.”
1834—FAISAN EN CHARTREUSE
Parboil a fine, round-headed, quartered cabbage, and braise it as directed under No. 2100, adding thereto an old, oven-browned pheasant.
The chartreuse may be made with the pheasant kept whole or cut into pieces, but in any case, roasted or poëled, it should be very tender and only just cooked. The old pheasant put in with the cabbage only serves in imparting its flavour to the latter, but it must not and cannot be used for the chartreuse.
If the chartreuse be made with a cut-up pheasant, proceed as in the case of No. 1778. If whole, line an oval mould chartreuse-fashion; coat the inside with a portion of the braised cabbage, which should be slightly pressed; set the pheasant, breast undermost, in the mould; cover it with what remains of the cabbage, and then turn it out on a dish.
Send a sauceboat of excellent half-glaze, flavoured with pheasant fumet, separately.
1835—FAISAN A LA CHOUCROÛTE
Prepare the sauerkraut after No. 2097, and bear in mind that when it is specially prepared to accompany a pheasant, it is considerably improved by being braised with foie-gras fat.
Poële a very tender pheasant, and only just cook it. Lay the well-drained sauerkraut on a long dish; set the pheasant upon it, and surround it with a border consisting of rectangles of bacon, cooked in the sauerkraut.
Serve separately the poëling-liquor combined with a little game fumet, strained, and kept somewhat greasy.
1836—FAISAN A LA CRÈME
Cook the pheasant in butter, in a saucepan, with a medium-sized, quartered onion. When the cooking is three-parts done, sprinkle the bird with one-quarter pint of cream (sour if possible), or with ordinary cream, acidulated by means of a few drops of lemon juice.
Finish the cooking, basting the piece the while with cream and serve in the saucepan.
1837—FAISAN DEMIDOFF
Proceed exactly as directed under “Poulet à la Demidoff” (No. 1464).
[583]
1838—FAISAN A LA GEORGIENNE
Truss the pheasant as for an entrée, and put it into a saucepan with thirty fresh, halved, and well-peeled walnuts; the juice of two lbs. of grapes and of four oranges, pressed on a sieve; a wineglassful of Malmsey wine; a glassful of strong, green tea; one and one-half oz. of butter, and the necessary seasoning.
Poach the pheasant in this preparation for about thirty minutes, and colour it when it is almost cooked.
When about to serve, dish it and surround it with fresh walnuts.
Strain the cooking-liquor through a napkin; add thereto one-third pint of game Espagnole, and reduce to half.
Slightly coat the pheasant and its garnish with the sauce, and serve what remains of the latter separately.
1839—FAISAN GRILLÉ DIABLE
For this preparation only young pheasants are used; although, provided they be tender, adult pheasants will answer the purpose. The procedure is precisely the same as that described under “Poulet Grillé” (No. 1636).
1840—FAISAN KOTSCHOUBEY
Cook the pheasant “en casserole,” and add to it, when it is almost done, two oz. of fine, raw truffle slices, and a little excellent game glaze, clear and well buttered.
Serve the following garnish separately:—Fry in butter four oz. of blanched, fresh breast of bacon, cut into dice. When the pieces are properly frizzled, add to them one lb. of freshly-cooked, well-drained, uncooled, and roughly-chopped Brussels sprouts. Add two oz. of fresh butter, a little pepper and grated nutmeg, and stew gently for one-half hour, that the garnish may just be ready in time for dishing.
1841—FAISAN A LA NORMANDE
Colour the pheasant in butter.
Meanwhile quarter, peel, mince, and slightly toss in butter six medium-sized apples.
Garnish the bottom of a terrine with a layer of these apples; set the browned pheasant thereon; surround it with what remains of the apples; sprinkle it with a few tablespoonfuls of fresh cream; cover the terrine, and cook in the oven for from twenty to twenty-eight minutes.
Serve the preparation in the terrine.
[584]
1842—FAISAN A LA PÉRIGUEUX
Stuff the pheasant with truffles, proceeding as for ordinary truffling (No. 1956). Poële it in Madeira; dish, and surround it with a border of quenelles consisting of truffled game forcemeat, moulded by means of a coffeespoon, and poached at the last moment.
Serve separately a Périgueux sauce combined with the reduced poëling-liquor, cleared of all grease.
1843—FAISAN A LA RÉGENCE
Poële the pheasant, and dish it on a low croûton, carved from a sandwich-loaf and fried in butter.
Surround it with small, decorated, round game quenelles; large, grooved, cooked mushrooms; and cocks’ kidneys; all three arranged alternately.
Serve separately a Salmis sauce, flavoured with truffle essence, and combined with the strained and reduced poëling-liquor, cleared of all grease.
1844—FAISAN A LA SAINTE-ALLIANCE
Bone two woodcocks, and put their livers and intestines aside.
Chop up their meat, together with a quarter of its weight of poached and cooled beef-marrow, and as much fresh, fat bacon; salt, pepper, and herbs. Add to this hash six oz. of raw, peeled, and quartered truffles, slightly cooked in butter.
Stuff the pheasant with this preparation; truss it; wrap it in slices of bacon, and keep it in the cool for twenty-four hours, that the aroma of the truffles may be concentrated.
Roast the pheasant on the spit, or, if in the oven, set it on a somewhat high stand in a baking-pan. Cut a large croûton from a sandwich-loaf, and fry it in clarified butter.
Pound the woodcocks’ livers and intestines with an equal weight of grated fresh fat bacon, the well-washed fillets of an anchovy, one oz. of butter, and one-half oz. of raw truffle. When this forcemeat is very smooth and all its ingredients thoroughly mixed, spread it over the fried croûtons.
When the pheasant is two-thirds cooked, set this coated croûton under the bird in such wise as to allow the juices escaping from the latter to drop upon the croûton. Complete the cooking, and dish the pheasant on the croûton. Surround with slices of bitter orange, and send the gravy separately.
When serving, accompany each piece of pheasant with a slice of orange and a small slice of the coated croûton.
[585]
1845—FAISAN SOUVAROFF
Cook six fair-sized truffles for five minutes in a glassful of Madeira and an equal quantity of light meat glaze. Withdraw the truffles and put them in the terrine in which the pheasant will complete its cooking.
Cut one-half lb. of foie gras into large dice; stiffen these in the truffles’ cooking-liquor, and stuff the pheasant therewith. Truss the latter; wrap it in slices of bacon, and two-thirds poële it.
This done, put it into the terrine containing the truffles; add the poëling-liquor, a small glassful of Madeira, and the same quantity of game gravy; hermetically close the terrine, and continue cooking for about a quarter of an hour.
Serve the preparation as it stands.
1846—SUPRÊMES, CÔTELETTES ET FILETS DE FAISAN
Pheasant Suprêmes, Cutlets and Fillets, allow of the same garnishes as those of fowl. But, whereas in the case of the latter, they are raised raw, and then poached, my advice in regard to pheasant is, that it should be previously roasted or poëled (keeping it just underdone) and that the suprêmes be only raised at the last moment.
By this means, a much better result is obtained than by the poaching of raw fillets; which, once cooked, are generally dry if they have to wait but a few seconds.
I also advise, when the garnish consists only of foie-gras collops and truffles (as in the case of the Rossini garnish), the sending separately of a small timbale of noodles with cream.
1847—SALMIS DE FAISAN
Salmis is perhaps the most delicate and most perfect of the game preparations bequeathed to us by old-fashioned cookery. If it be less highly esteemed nowadays, it is owing to the fact that this recipe has been literally spoiled by the haphazard fashion in which it has been applied right and left to game already cooked, and cooked again for the purpose.
But the Salmis given above may always be included in any menu, however sumptuous. It is applied more particularly to game of the 1st and 2nd classes, which should be somewhat high when treated.
The recipe I give may be applied to all the birds in the two classes referred to.
Roast the pheasant, keeping it moderately underdone. Quickly cut it into eight pieces, thus: two legs, two wings (separated from the pinions), and the breast cut into four lengthwise. [586] Skin the pieces; trim them neatly, and keep them at a temperate heat in a covered vegetable-pan, with a few drops of burnt brandy and a little clear melted meat glaze.
Pound the carcass and the trimmings, and add to them half a bottleful of red wine (almost entirely reduced), three chopped shallots and a few mignonette pepper. Add one-quarter pint of good game Espagnole sauce; cook for ten minutes; rub through a sieve, pressing well the while, and then strain through a strainer.
Reduce this sauce to about one-third, and despumate it; strain it once more through a close strainer; add a small quantity of butter, and pour it over the pieces of pheasant, to which add a fine, sliced truffle and six grooved mushroom-heads.
I advise the discarding of the old method of dishing upon a cushion of bread fried in butter, as also of the triangular croûtons fried in butter and coated with gratin forcemeat, which usually accompanied the Salmis.
A speedy preparation and a simple method of dishing, which facilitate the service and allow of the Salmis being eaten hot, are the only necessary conditions. Moreover, the goodness of the preparation is such as to be independent of a fantastic method of dishing.
1848—SAUTÉ DE FAISAN
Unless it be prepared with the greatest care, sautéd pheasant is always dry. I therefore do not recommend it; but, should it be necessary to make a dish of it, care should be observed in selecting a young, plump bird. It should be cut up like a fowl, cooked in butter on a moderate fire and kept somewhat underdone.
Dish it after the manner of a “poulet sauté” and cover it. Swill the sautépan and prepare a sauce after the recipe in common use.
This sauce must always be short, and it should be poured over the pheasant just before serving it.
1849—PÂTÉ CHAUD DE FAISAN
The preparation of hot, raised pheasant pies is the same as usual; the ingredients alone changing. The reader will, therefore, kindly refer to “Pâté chaud de Canard” (No. 1752), and duly note the following modifications:—
(1) Use a gratin forcemeat (No. 202) prepared from game livers and meat.
(2) Roast the pheasant, keeping it underdone, and mix the pieces of cooked mushroom with the sliced truffles.
[587]
(3) Accompany the pie by a Salmis sauce, prepared from
the pheasant’s carcass and remains.
1850—MOUSSES ET MOUSSELINES DE FAISAN
As already stated in various parts of this work, the constituents and their quantities are the same for mousses and mousselines, and but for the basic ingredient, which is pheasant in this case, the procedure does not differ from that already described.
The base of the sauces served with these mousses and mousselines is a fumet made from the carcasses and remains.
1851—SOUFFLÉ DE FAISAN
Prepare a very light, mousseline forcemeat of pheasant.
Set in a buttered soufflé saucepan, and cook in a moderate oven.
Send a fine, half-glaze sauce, flavoured with game essence, at the same time.
Cold Pheasant
1852—FAISAN A LA BOHÉMIENNE
Proceed as for “Faisan à la Bohémienne” hot (No. 1831). Cook it in an earthenware terrine, and add thereto, at the same time as the prescribed brandy, enough succulent, savoury jelly to fill up the terrine.
Leave to cool for a day or two, and, when about to serve, remove the grease that has settled on the surface, by means of a spoon. Remove the last vestiges of grease by repeated scaldings; carefully wipe the terrine, and serve it incrusted in a block of ice.
1853—CHAUD-FROID DE FAISAN
Proceed exactly as for “Chaud-froid de Volaille” (No. 1689), and use a brown chaud-froid sauce, flavoured with pheasant fumet.
In regard to the decoration, dishing, &c., follow the recipe already referred to.
1854—CHAUD-FROID DE FAISAN A LA BULOZ
Poële a pheasant, keeping it underdone; raise its suprêmes, and cut these into thin collops.
With a fumet prepared from the carcass and the poëling-liquor, prepare a brown chaud-froid sauce. Coat the collops with this sauce, and also coat ten cooked and grooved mushrooms with a white chaud-froid sauce.
[588]
Clothe a dome-mould with clear aspic jelly, and deck it with
truffles.
Set the collops of pheasant and the chaud-froid-coated truffles inside, alternating the two in so doing; fill up the mould with the same jelly, and let it set on ice. When about to serve, turn out after the manner of an aspic, on a low cushion of rice or semolina, lying on a round dish.
Border with neatly-cut croûtons of very clear aspic.
1855—FAISAN A LA CROIX DE BERNY
Roast the pheasant and keep it underdone. When it is quite cold, raise its fillets and leave the legs and the wings attached to the carcass.
By means of scissors, completely bone the carcass; garnish its inside with a truffled foie-gras Parfait, and cover it with a thin coat of foie-gras Mousse.
Replace the fillets upon this Mousse, after having sliced them, and fill any gaps that may exist between the slices with some of the same Mousse: thus reconstructing the bird.
Let the Mousse set thoroughly, and glaze with aspic jelly.
Meanwhile, coat eight boned, stuffed, poached and cold larks with brown chaud-froid sauce. Decorate them with pieces of truffle and salted tongue, and glaze them with aspic jelly.
Dish the pheasant on a low cushion; surround it with the larks, and garnish the gaps between the latter with chopped and very clear aspic.
1856—FAISAN EN DAUBE
Proceed as for “Terrine de Poularde à la gelée” (No. 1701), making due allowance, in the cooking, for the difference between the sizes of the two birds.
1857—CÔTELETTES DE FAISAN
Proceed as for “Côtelettes froides de Volaille.”
1858—GALANTINE DE FAISAN
See “Galantine de Volaille” (No. 1708).
1859—MOUSSE DE FAISAN
Prepare the Mousse according to the usual procedure, and mould it after the manner of “Mousse de Volaille” (No. 1711).
1860—PAIN DE FAISAN EN BELLE-VUE
The procedure follows that of No. 1709, but for the difference in the basic ingredient, which in this case is pheasant.
[589]
1861—SUPRÊMES DE FAISAN CHÂTELAINE
Raise the suprêmes and prepare them exactly like the suprêmes of fowl in “Chaud-froid Félix Faure” (No. 1691). Poach them; cool them, and cut them into medallions as explained.
Cover half of these medallions with chicken Mousse, and the other half with pheasant Mousse. Keep on ice for some time that the Mousse may set. This done, coat the first lot with brown chaud-froid sauce and the second lot with white chaud-froid sauce. Deck each medallion with small pieces of truffle. Set them in a deep, square dish (alternating the two colours), and cover with very clear, succulent aspic jelly. Leave to set and serve on a block of ice.
1862—SUPRÊMES DE FAISAN GASTRONOME
Poële the pheasant in Madeira and let it cool. Raise the fillets; cut them into thin, regular slices; coat them with brown chaud-froid sauce, and decorate according to fancy. With the trimmings and the meat of the legs, prepare a pheasant Mousse after the manner described under No. 1711, and mould it in a Parfait mould which should have the depth of the chaud-froid-coated slices.
When this Mousse has set, turn it out on a dish and place the slices all round, standing them upright and letting them lean one against the other.
Surround with a crown of fine, fair-sized, peeled truffles, cooked in Champagne, and set one of them on the top of the Mousse, fixing it there by means of a hatelet.
Border the dish with fine croûtons of aspic.
1863—TERRINE DE FAISAN
Prepare it after the manner of the “Terrine de Lièvre” (No. 1825), and take care to make due allowance, in the cooking, for the difference, in the matter of tenderness, between the two meats. But the explanations already given on this subject ought to suffice for ascertaining whether or not the patty have cooked sufficiently.
PARTRIDGE (PERDRIX ET PERDREAUX)
Three kinds of partridges are used in Cookery:—the Grey Partridge, which is commonest in flat country, and which is also the most highly esteemed; the Red Partridge, which is to be found in hilly and wooded country; and the Bartavelle (perdix vertevella), which is a somewhat larger species than the two former. To these three kinds may be added the American [590] Colin (Ortix Virginianus), an excellent bird sometimes seen in English markets.
All the recipes given for pheasants may be applied to partridge, and below, I shall only give those which are proper to the latter.
1864—PERDREAU A LA BOURGUIGNONNE
Truss the partridge as for an entrée; three-parts poële it, and place it in a terrine with six small glazed onions and as many small, cooked mushroom heads. Swill the saucepan with a glassful of red wine; reduce it two-thirds, and add a tablespoonful of game half-glaze. Strain; clear of grease; pour this sauce over the partridge, and complete the latter’s cooking for seven or eight minutes.
1865—PERDREAU EN DEMI-DEUIL
Bone the breast and fill the partridge with truffled partridge forcemeat, prepared with panada or butter. Between the skin and the fillets, slip a few slices of very black truffle; truss as for an entrée; wrap the piece in muslin, and poach it for thirty minutes in a game fumet.
When about to serve, remove the muslin; take the string off, and dish the partridge. Reduce the fumet in which the partridge has poached; strain it; add thereto a liqueur-glassful of burnt liqueur-brandy, and send this reduced fumet separately.
1866—PERDREAU EN ESTOUFFADE
Brown the partridge in the oven and set in a terrine just large enough to hold it, with a tablespoonful of Matignon (No. 227) and one crushed juniper berry, on top and beneath.
Add one-half oz. of butter, a liqueur-glassful of burnt brandy, and twice that amount of game fumet. Close the terrine; seal down the lid with a strip of paste; bake in a hot oven for twenty-five minutes and serve the dish as it stands.
1867—PERDREAU A LA LAUTREC
Select a young partridge; open its back; slightly flatten it with a butcher’s beater; pierce it through with a skewer; season it with salt, pepper and melted butter, and gently grill.
At the same time grill six small mushroom-heads.
Dish the partridge; on either side of it set the mushrooms, each of which should be garnished with a coffeespoonful of Maître-d’hôtel butter; surround the mushrooms with a thread of melted meat glaze and sprinkle the partridge with a few drops of lemon juice.
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1868—PERDREAU LADY CLIFFORD
Cook the partridge in butter in a saucepan. When it is three-parts done, surround it with two oz. of fine slices of raw truffle; add a liqueur-glassful of burnt brandy and one tablespoonful of clear melted meat glaze.
Serve a Soubise sauce at the same time and separately.
1869—PERDREAU AUX CHOUX
Prepare a garnish of braised cabbages as explained under No. 2100, and add thereto an old partridge, browned in the oven or on the spit. Meanwhile, roast or poële a very tender young partridge and keep it underdone.
Dish the cabbages, which should be well drained; set the young partridge upon them, and surround with small rectangles of very lean bacon, cooked with the cabbages, and a thread of half-glaze sauce, flavoured with game fumet.
N.B.—This dish may be given a more decorative appearance by means of a sort of Chartreuse, which is prepared as follows:—Line a large bowl or a buttered, round-bottomed timbale with roundels of sausages; roundels of carrots arranged in superposed rows, separated by a line of French beans or peas; and small rectangles of bacon, laid side by side.
Line the inside of the timbale with a thick layer of cabbages, and put the young partridge, breast undermost, in the middle (the partridge may also be carved up). Cover the cabbages and press the latter with a fork; turn the timbale out on a dish and tilt the latter that all the grease may fall before withdrawing the timbale, which answers the purpose of a mould.
Surround with a thread of half-glaze sauce, flavoured with game fumet.
1870—CRÉPINETTES DE PERDREAUX
After substituting the meat of a young partridge, cleared of all tendons, for the veal sweetbreads, and fresh bacon for calf’s udder, proceed exactly as directed (as regards quantities and other particulars) under “Crépinettes de ris de Veau” (No. 1222), taking care to add three oz. of chopped truffles per lb. of the forcemeat.
Divide up the forcemeat into portions one and one-half oz. to two oz. in weight; wrap them in pig’s caul; roll them first in melted butter and then in bread-crumbs, and grill them gently.
The usual accompaniment to these crépinettes is a light chestnut or lentil purée.
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1871—EPIGRAMMES DE PERDREAU
Raise the young partridge’s fillets, leaving the wing-bone attached to the carcass, and put them aside. From the minion fillets and the meat of the legs, prepare a mousseline forcemeat; mould the latter in very small buttered cutlet moulds, and set to poach.
Roll the fillets in melted butter and bread-crumbs, and grill them gently. Dip the cutlets in beaten egg; roll them in finely-chopped truffles; press upon the latter with the flat of a knife, that they may combine with the egg; adjust the shape of the cutlets, and toss them in butter.
Dish in the form of a circle, alternating the fillets and the cutlets; pour in their midst a cullis prepared from the partridge’s carcasses, and serve a chestnut purée separately.
1872—TIMBALE DE PERDREAU DIANE
Line a liberally-buttered, shallow mould with crescents of truffle arranged in superposed rows, and then completely cover the bottom and sides of the mould with a layer, two-thirds in. thick, of raw partridge forcemeat.
Place the mould in the front of the oven that the forcemeat may be poached; and then spread another layer of gratin forcemeat of game.
Fill the utensil with a garnish of small quenelles consisting of truffled partridge forcemeat, mushrooms and slices of truffles, cohered with a reduced Madeira sauce. Cover the garnish with a small coat of forcemeat, and poach in the bain-marie for from thirty to thirty-five minutes.
When about to serve, turn out on a dish, and deck the timbale with a crown of partridges’ suprêmes, raised from birds fresh from the spit or the oven. Surround the base of the timbale with a thread of Diane sauce, and send a sauceboat of the latter separately.
1873—PERDREAUX FROIDS
The various recipes given for cold pheasant also suit cold partridge; it is only necessary therefore to replace the word “pheasant” by “partridge” in the formulæ referred to.
1874—WOODCOCK AND SNIPE (BÉCASSE ET BÉCASSINES)
If grouse, which can only be thoroughly appreciated in its native country, were extinct, woodcock would be the leading feathered game. But the latter have this advantage over the former, namely: that their fumet is not so fugitive, and that they may be kept much longer. Woodcock does not yield its full quality unless it be moderately high.
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1875—BÉCASSE DE CARÊME
Sprinkle the woodcock with a few drops of oil, and roast it, keeping it underdone. As soon as it is cooked, divide it into two lengthwise, and cut each half of the breast into two collops. Mix half a coffeespoonful of French mustard in a small vegetable-pan, with a few drops of lemon juice. Roll the pieces of woodcock in this mustard, and keep them hot.
Chop up the carcass and the intestines; sprinkle with a glassful of burnt liqueur brandy; reduce; add a tablespoonful of game fumet, and cook for five minutes.
Strain through a strainer, pressing on the pieces of woodcock in so doing, and rock the saucepan, that the pieces may be coated with the cullis. Dish in a hot timbale, and, upon the pieces, set the woodcock’s head.
N.B.—Bécasse à la fine Champagne is prepared in the same way, but without mustard. Cut it into six pieces: wings, legs and two halves of the breast, and put these pieces into a round cocotte. Swill the saucepan with burnt liqueur brandy; add the chopped intestines, mixed with the juices of the pressed carcass; add a tablespoonful of fumet, a little lemon juice, and a little cayenne, and pour this cullis (heated but not boiled) over the pieces.
Bécasse à la Riche is prepared in the same way, but:—(1) the pieces are dished on a croûton of fried bread, coated with gratin forcemeat of game; (2) the sauce is thickened with a little foie-gras purée and one oz. of butter, and then strained over the pieces through a coarse strainer, during which process the operator should press with a spoon or a whisk.
1876—BÉCASSE A LA FAVART
Proceed as for “Caneton Rouennais Soufflé” (No. 1764), and remember to add the woodcock’s intestines to the forcemeat.
When the carcass is garnished, set the sliced suprêmes on the forcemeat, with a row of sliced truffles in the middle. The forcemeat should poach for about twenty minutes.
Serve at the same time a half-glaze sauce, flavoured with woodcock fumet.
1877—SALMIS DE BÉCASSE
Under the article “Pheasant,” I gave the generic recipe for Salmis, which may be applied to all feathered game. In regard to the Woodcock Salmis, the operator should remember to add the bird’s intestines to the sauce, and to keep the meat rather under- than overdone.
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1878—BÉCASSE SOUVAROFF
Proceed exactly as for “Faisan à la Souvaroff” (No. 1845), after making due allowance for the size of the bird in regard to the quantity of truffles and foie gras.
1879—MOUSSES ET MOUSSELINES DE BÉCASSE
Proceed as indicated in No. 1850.
1880—TIMBALE DE BÉCASSE METTERNICH
Prepare a somewhat shallow, decorated timbale crust.
Roast the woodcocks and keep them underdone.
Raise the suprêmes and put them in the timbale, separating them by collops of fresh foie gras, sautéd at the last moment.
Pound the remains of the woodcocks, including their carcasses; thin the purée with truffle essence; rub it through a sieve, pressing heavily the while, and then rub it through tammy.
Heat the cullis thus obtained, without letting it boil; finish it with a little lemon juice, liqueur-brandy and butter, and pour it into the timbale over the pieces of woodcock and the foie gras collops.
Dish the timbale on a folded napkin, lying on a round dish.
1881—TIMBALE DE BÉCASSE NESSELRODE
Poële the woodcocks and keep them underdone.
As soon as they are cooked, raise their fillets and put these aside.
Bone the remains, and pound the meat thus obtained, together with a quarter of its weight of raw foie gras.
Rub through a sieve, and add an equal weight of game forcemeat, prepared with panada and butter. Add the chopped carcasses and a glassful of liqueur brandy to the poëling-liquor; cook for a few minutes; strain, and in this stock poach five oz. of olive-shaped truffles (for an ordinary timbale).
Line a buttered Charlotte-mould with short paste; cover its bottom and sides with the prepared forcemeat, and against this forcemeat set the woodcock’s suprêmes, cut into collops. Garnish the centre with the truffles, and cover these with a few tablespoonfuls of Espagnole, reduced with some of the fumet. Close the timbale with a layer of paste, as explained in the various preceding timbale recipes, and bake in a good, moderate oven for about forty-five minutes.
When about to serve, turn out the timbale on a dish; pour into the former some half-glaze sauce combined with what remains of the fumet, and send a sauceboat of the same sauce separately.
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N.B.—This “Timbale Nesselrode” may be prepared after
the same recipe, from Pheasant, Partridge, Woodcock or Hazel-Hen,
but the name of the selected bird should, of course, appear
on the menu.