COOKERY OF THE PARTRIDGE 267 



of game they enter in their turn into the composition 

 of the true and rare Yorkshire pie, from which nothing 

 can possibly be more different than the mixture (by no 

 means despicable in its way) which is sold under that 

 name as a rule. The true Yorkshire pie consists of 

 birds of different sizes (tradition requires a turkey 

 to begin with and a snipe to end with) boned and 

 packed into each other with forcemeat to fill up 

 the interstices until a solid mass of contrasted layers 

 is formed. The idea is barbaric but grandiose ; the 

 execution capital. 



There are, however, divers ways of dealing with 

 partridges which might not occur even to an ordinarily 

 lively imagination with a knowledge of plain cookery. 

 I am driven to believe, from many years' experience of 

 cookery-books, that such an imagination combined 

 with such a knowledge is by no means so common 

 as one might expect. But the possession of it would 

 not necessarily enable any one to discover for him or 

 herself the more elaborate or at least more out-of-the- 

 way devices to which we shall now come. 



One of these (personally I think not one of the 

 most successful, but it depends very much on taste) 

 is a chartreuse of partridges. The receipts for this 

 will be found to differ very greatly in different books ; 

 but the philosopher who has the power of detecting 



