Partridges with Mushrooms

Prepare half to three quarters of a pint of mushroom-buttons, or very small flaps, as for pickling.

Melt an ounce and a half of butter over a gentle fire. Add the mushrooms with a slight sprinkling of salt and cayenne.

Simmer for eight to ten minutes.

Turn the mushrooms with the butter onto a plate.

When the mushrooms are quite cold, stuff the whole into the bodies of the partridges.

Sew the partridges up.

Truss the partridges securely.

Roast the partridges on a vertical jack with the heads downwards, or tie them firmly to an ordinary spit instead of passing it through them.

Roast for the usual time.

Serve with brown mushroom sauce, or with gravy and bread sauce only.

Alternatively, truss like boiled fowls, flour, and lightly brown in butter.

Half cover with rich brown gravy and stew slowly for thirty minutes.

Turn and simmer for another half hour with the addition of some mushrooms to the gravy.

Or cover with small mushrooms stewed apart when sent to table.

Serve with sauce only, thickened with a small quantity of fresh butter, smoothly mixed with less than a teaspoonful of arrow-root, flavored with cayenne and a little catsup, wine, or store sauce.