COOKERY OF THE PARTRIDGE 269 



A dish which seems at first sight to savour of will- 

 worship and extravagance is souffle of partridge. Yet 

 it is defensible from the charge of being false heraldry, 

 for the partridge is a winged animal, and that which 

 restores to him lightness is not against nature. But 

 it is important to remember that it has to be made of 

 young birds perdreauxjnokperdrix and like all things 

 of its kind it is not for every cook to achieve. Yet 

 the main lines of the preparation are simple. The 

 meat of cold partridges is pounded, moistened, warmed 

 with stock, and passed through a sieve till it becomes 

 a puree. It is then combined with a still stronger 

 stock, made of the bones of the birds themselves, 

 adding butter, some nutmeg, four yolks of eggs, and 

 two of the whites carefully whipped, after which it is 

 put into the souffle dish and the souffle dish in the 

 oven, and the whole, as quickly as possible after 

 rising, set before the persons who are to eat it. Much 

 good may it do them. 



The perdrean truffe which so ravished Mr. Tit- 

 marsh at the Cafe Foy long since (I cannot conceive 

 what induced him to drink Sauterne with it, and after 

 Burgundy too ! it should have been at least Meursault, 

 if not Montrachet or White Hermitage) was no doubt 

 an excellent bird ; but there might be others as good 

 as he. The truffle, to my fancy, is rather for com- 



