PERDREAUX AU CHOU.
Perhaps the best way of cooking tough partridges is with
cabbage, PERDREAUX AU CHOU, in the following manner:—
Prepare four partridges as for boiling, with their legs tucked
in: lard their breasts with bacon and put an onion inside each
of them. Cut a savoy cabbage into quarters, blanch them, and
steep them in cold salt and water for an hour. Now take a roomy
stew-pan, line its bottom with thin slices of fat bacon, two carrots,
and two large onions sliced in rings, a sprinkling of powdered
herbs, and a dusting of salt and pepper. Put the partridges
above this lining, inserting a quarter of cabbage in the spaces
between each bird, a slice of streaky bacon here and there
alternated with slices of Bologna or Brunswick sausage.
Moisten with a strong broth which might be made with a
pound of fowl giblets, those of the partridges, a couple of
sheep's trotters, and an ounce of glaze, with a seasoning of
herbs, pepper, and salt. This should be sufficient in quantity
to cover the birds. Put a breakfast-cupful of melted dripping
in also, and cover with a buttered paper. Put on the fire