Vol-au-vent.—For this dish the birds are boned and stuffed as if for serving in paper cases. They are then sent to table in a vol-au-vent case, with a rich white game sauce and mushrooms or truffles.
Ortolans. Fried.—Truss as for roasting; dip each bird in the yolk of eggs well beaten, and then sprinkle over thickly with breadcrumbs, fry in boiling lard, or butter, or oil. Serve on fried breadcrumbs mixed with a savoury powder made of mushrooms or truffles. The bread for the crumbs should have been soaked in lemon-juice and port wine.
In cases.—The birds for this dish are baked in paper cases. First pick, singe, and bone them, cut ¼ lb. bacon into small pieces, and put it in a sautépan with 2 shallots, 2 bay leaves, some parsley, thyme, and marjoram, 1 doz. whole peppercorns, and salt, fry until brown; then add ½ lb. calf’s liver, cut in pieces, cook this till brown; then turn the contents of the pan into a mortar and pound them, rub through a sieve, place back in the mortar and repound, adding the yolks of 3 hard-boiled eggs, when thoroughly mixed add 6 truffles chopped fine. Stuff the ortolans with this mixture, and place each bird in a well-oiled paper case, brush over with oil, and put into a quick oven. Make a rich sauce of the bones of the birds, half a pint of good gravy stock, and a glass of port wine, reduce to about a gill, and when the birds are ready to serve, pour a spoonful of this sauce over each, sending to table as hot as possible.
Roast.—Let the birds hang till quite tender, then pluck and singe, but do not draw, truss as you would quail, wiping them carefully all over first of all. Wrap each bird in a young, freshly-gathered vine leaf, and tie them on a bird spit, put down at a moderate distance from a brisk fire, and roast, according to size, 20-25 minutes. Place under the birds, in the dripping-pan, slices of toast to catch the trail, baste incessantly with butter during the time they are roasting, dish up on the toast, and serve on a very hot dish. Some people sprinkle the birds over with fine breadcrumbs just before serving, and serve on breadcrumbs, made from bread soaked in lemon-juice and port wine, instead of toast. Send to table with them a well-made orange or lemon gravy, prepared thus: Simmer in some good stock, about ½ pint, 4 or 5 strips orange or lemon peel (whichever flavour is preferred), a few basil leaves, the juice of the lemon or orange, salt and pepper to taste, and a glass of port wine; allow all these ingredients to simmer 15 minutes, strain, heat again, and serve as hot as possible in a sauce tureen with a cover. Bacon should never be wrapped round ortolans; it destroys their delicate flavour.
Stewed à la Provençale.—Cut off the feet and heads of the birds, provide the same number of large truffles as there are ortolans; cut a hole in each truffle and fill it with French forcemeat. Season the birds well, and lay them on their backs on the truffles. Set them in a deep stewpan, and cover with slices of bacon—in this method of cooking, bacon is admissible—and about ½ pint stock (veal) and ½ pint port wine. Stew for 20 minutes, or a trifle longer, closely covered. Take out the truffles and ortolans, strain the sauce through a hair sieve, and when cool remove every particle of fat; reduce it by gentle reboiling to about one half the quantity, then add ½ pint brown Spanish sauce; reduce again, and resoak toast in this sauce and arrange the truffles and ortolans on it, piling them up in the dish. Ortolans can be dressed in any of the ways suitable for other small birds, such as quails, larks, and wheat-ears, but, being so expensive, few people are disposed to other than cook them plainly without trying any experiments which may or may not answer. (E. J.)
Partridges (Perdrix, perdreaux).—Partridges are excellent in pies and puddings, or en salmis, made as directed for grouse, and any fragments left over are well disposed of in croustades and in little paper cases, while the carcases are invaluable for making stock.
Boiled.—(a) Take 2 partridges (not at all high), truss them as fowls are trussed for boiling, and put them into a panful of boiling water, salted to taste; let them boil slowly 15-20 minutes. Then serve on a bed of either celery, mushroom, onion, or tomato sauce.
(b) Put them in plenty of boiling water, boil them for 15 minutes, and serve with celery sauce made thus: Take the white part of 6 heads of celery, wash, pare, and cut it into pieces about 1 in. long; boil these in plenty of water until tender, and strain. Meanwhile, take 1 gill white gravy, ½ pint cream, and a little butter rolled in flour. Boil it up till it is thick and smooth, add a little grated nutmeg, put in the celery with a little salt, and give the whole a boil up. Stir in (off the fire) the yolks of 2 eggs beaten up with the juice of a lemon, pour some of the sauce over the birds, and serve the remainder in boats. It is perhaps an improvement to boil the celery in stock instead of water.
Braised.—(a) Truss 2 birds as for boiling, and lard their breasts very finely with fat bacon, put them into a small braising pan over 2 slices bacon, add 2 small onions stuck with 6 cloves, 2 carrots cut in pieces, a bundle of sweet herbs, pepper and salt to taste, a cupful of stock, and one of white wine; place a buttered paper over all, and braise them gently for 2 hours, keeping a few hot embers on the lid of the pan. Serve with their own liquor, strained, and well freed from fat.