Name: Roast Partridge
Ingredients: young partridges; slices of bacon; game sauce or jelly

Roast Partridge

Ingredients

young partridges
slices of bacon
game sauce or jelly

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Hang the young partridges for a while.
Tie a slice of bacon over the breast of each bird.

Roast and serve

Roast in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 30 minutes.
Serve with game sauce or jelly.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Young partridges: Provide the lean, delicate meat that forms the main dish.
Slices of bacon: Baste the lean breast meat with fat as it roasts, keeping it moist and adding savoury flavour.
Game sauce or jelly: Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich, gamey flavour of the birds.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.