Bone as many ortolans as are required, have ready about three rashers of bacon chopped fine, which must be put into a sauté-pan with two shalots, one bayleaf, a bouquet garni, half a teaspoonful of black pepper and salt to taste. These must be fried till coloured; then add half a pound of calf's liver, cut small, and fried till brown; next place them in a mortar and pound them well, add the yolks of three hard boiled eggs and some truffle cuttings, pound again, and pass through a sieve; stuff the ortolans with this forcemeat, roll them up, and place them in a well-oiled paper case, and then bake in a quick oven. Pour over each case before serving a gravy made from the bones and trimmings of the birds, half a pint of rich gravy and a glass of claret, which should be reduced one half: send to table as hot as possible.
Ortolans à la Périgourdine.
Cover the ortolans with slices of bacon, and cook them in a bain-marie moistened with stock and lemon juice. Take as many truffles as there are ortolans, scoop out the centres and boil them in champagne (Saumur will do). When done, pour a little purée of game into each truffle, add the ortolans, warm for a few seconds in the oven, and serve.
Ortolans aux Truffes.
Take as many even large-sized truffles as ortolans; make a large round hole in the middle of each truffle, and put in it a little chicken forcemeat. Cut off the heads, necks, and feet of the birds, season with salt and pepper, and lay each bird on its back in one of the truffles. Arrange them in a stewpan, lay thin slices of bacon over them, pour over them some good stock, into which a gill of Madeira has been poured, and then simmer them very gently for twenty-five minutes. Dish the ortolans on toast, and strain the gravy over them.
Partridges à la Barbarie.
Truss the birds, and stuff them with chopped truffles and rasped bacon, seasoned with salt and pepper and a tiny dust of cayenne. Cut small pieces of truffles in the shape of nails; make holes with a penknife in the breasts of the birds; widen the holes with a skewer, and fill them with the truffles; let this decoration be very regular. Put them into a stewpan with slices of bacon round them, and good gravy poured in enough to cover the birds. When they have been stewed for twenty minutes glaze them; dish them up with a Financière sauce (see 'Entrées à la Mode').
Partridge Blancmanger aux Truffes.
Boil a brace of partridges and let them get cold. Melt about a pint of aspic jelly and take a plain round quart mould and pour about a gill of aspic jelly into it to mask it by turning the mould round and round in the hands till the inside has been entirely covered by the jelly, pour away any that does not adhere, and place the mould on ice at once. Cut a few large truffles in slices and ornament the bottom of the mould with a star, pour on about two tablespoonfuls of a little cold liquid aspic. Put into a stewpan a pint of aspic and whisk it till it becomes white as cream, then mask the mould with this; pour in enough to half fill it, then turn it round and round, covering all the inside of the mould, pouring out any superfluity. Skin the partridges and cut off all the meat and chop it up: then pound it with a gill of cream in the mortar, and then rub through a fine wire sieve. Place this in a large stewpan, add half a pint of cream, and mix it with the partridge meat. Collect the aspic jelly, melt it, and whip it up and add it to the partridge; then fill the mould with this and pour in a little liquid aspic; place on ice. To serve this, dip it into warm water the same as a mould of jelly, turn it out, and garnish with aspic croûtons alternately with very small tomatoes; around the top arrange a wreath of chervil.