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Ill Partridges

Partridges cooked with bacon, fowl broth, and Spanish sauce, finished with glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Ill Partridges

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and braise

  1. Truss the partridges and shape them nicely.

  2. Place some slices of bacon at the bottom of a large stewpan.

  3. Add the partridges and cover them with more bacon.

  4. Pour in enough rich fowl broth to cover the partridges.

  5. Cover the stewpan and simmer for 20 minutes over low heat.

Serve

  1. Drain the partridges and place them on a hot dish.

  2. Pour Spanish sauce mixed with a little glaze over the partridges and serve.

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

Partridges
Lean game meat that stays tender when gently braised rather than boiled.
Bacon
Its fat renders into the pan and flavours the birds as they cook.
Rich fowl broth
Braising liquid that keeps the partridges moist and carries flavour into the meat.
Spanish sauce
A rich, savoury sauce that coats the finished birds and adds depth.

The step that matters

Keep the simmer gentle. Once the stewpan is covered, the broth should only barely simmer over low heat. Boiling tightens the muscle fibres of lean partridge, making the meat tough and dry.

“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.

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