For 4 people: 4 partridges with hearts and livers, 4 tbsp port wine, 1 tbsp cognac, salt, pepper, 1 onion, 1 carrot, ¼ tsp thyme, 1 tomato, ¼ l dry white wine, 1/8 l veal stock, 6 juniper berries, 100 g pork net, 100 g foie gras, 4 truffle slices, 1 tbsp double cream, 50 g butter.
For the farce: 100 g pork, 100 g fatty bacon, 50 g poultry livers, 2 shallots, 20 g butter, 1 egg yolk, salt, pepper, a little truffle juice.
Remove the breasts of the partridges from the ribs and peel off the skin. Skin and remove the drumsticks as well, leaving the thigh bone in. Marinate the cleanly parred breasts and drumsticks with port, cognac, pepper, and salt for about 2 hours, turning frequently.
Farce: Put the pork, bacon, poultry livers, and giblets of the partridges through the fine disk of a meat grinder. In a bowl, stir the mixture well with the finely chopped shallots sweated in the butter, egg yolks, salt, pepper and truffle juice. Chill.
Sauce: Sauté shredded partridge ribs vigorously with chopped onion and carrot. Carefully salt and season with the thyme. Add the chopped tomato, the marinade from the breasts, white wine, veal stock and juniper berries. Simmer uncovered for a good half hour, then sieve.
Cut the pork net into four pieces, which should be about 20 x 15 cm. Spread a thin layer of the farce on top. Place 4 thighs on top and then 2 breasts on each, with a piece of foie gras and a slice of truffle in between. Spread everything with farce and wrap in the pork nets. There should be 4 cutlet-like parcels, the bones of which form the partridge thighs.
Place the parcels in a buttered hot dish and place in a 240° oven for 12 minutes so that the breasts remain pink and juicy. Then transfer to a warmed platter.
While the chops are roasting, finish the sauce. Simmer the strained stock with the double cream and round off with butter. Season to taste and pour over the chops. Serve with chestnut purée, porcini mushrooms or roast potatoes or potato biscuits. And as good a red Burgundy as you can afford.
You like green seeds, grain and ameys-eyes: partridges
Already the great-grandparents have been poultry traders in Duisburg. In 1960, father von der Assen opened his shop in Neu-Isenburg, and for the past five years the company has been represented in Frankfurt's Kleinmarkthalle. Now the von der Assen brothers have expanded their stand into a "Schlemmercarrée" (gourmet carousel), making them one of the first to ensure that, in addition to hot sausage, you can finally eat something a little more refined in the market hall. It is recommended for imitation. Besides all kinds of sandwiches, it is mostly poultry dishes, because the von der Assens know a lot about it.
You can take home all kinds of free-range, tame poultry. But also wild, partridges for example. This is where discerning eaters turn their attention in autumn, when "the hunt is on". Bred ones, similar to farmed pheasants, are hardly worth mentioning, only really wild partridges can be turned into one of the most beautiful delicacies autumn has to offer. Magister Elsholtz was not the only one to rave about them "In spring they eat "the young buttons of the hazels and birches, as in the same way grass and green seeds, in summer they live on grain as well as on amyss-eyes."
No wonder they taste good; but partridges are also beautiful birds, huntable ones bear a horseshoe-shaped, reddish-brown pattern in their breast plumage. For many years they were not hunted in this country, but now the population has recovered to such an extent that partridges from domestic hunting are again to be had, others coming from Denmark and Scotland. Stone chickens, the southern European variety, also sometimes enrich the supply.
Wild alone is not enough, the birds must also be young. It's easy to tell if you're looking at young partridges by the color of their feet: they have to look yellow and smooth; by no means slate gray and scaly, because then you'd be dealing with old birds. They can be stewed, but the extraordinary, juicy delicacy of a young partridge is looked for in vain with them, meanwhile easily needs a toothpick.
As for the preparation, the market leader keeps it with Alfred Walterspiel and roasts the young partridges "without great feats" quickly in plenty of butter with root vegetables and juniper berries in the oven. And that under "frequent turning and diligent watering", as it is called in old cookbooks. Add to this, say, mashed potatoes with truffle butter, sweet chestnuts or even a gentle salad, and great anticipation ensues.
It should be one partridge per person. If you want to bring partridges to the table for a special occasion and make a real effort and spend a good amount of money, you should consider partridge cutlet Romanov.
Game and Poultry
.Hubert and Christoph von der Assen
Small Market Hall, Booth 52/53 u. 612/60
Hasengasse 7
60311 Frankfurt am Main
Phone: 069-20385
from Waldemar Thomas