276 COOKERY OF THE PARTRIDGE 



very susceptible of it, inasmuch as his taste is neither 

 neutral nor, like that of waterfowl in general and the 

 grouse tribe also, so definite and pronounced that it 

 is almost impossible to smother it by the commingling 

 of other flavours. I own frankly that to my own taste 

 these flavour-experiments of cookery should be kept 

 for things like veal, which have no particular flavour 

 of their own, and which are, therefore, public material 

 for the artist to work upon. I do not think that you 

 can have too much of a very good thing, and if I 

 wanted other good things I should rather add them 

 of a different kind than attempt to corrupt and de- 

 naturalise the simplicity of the first good thing itself. 

 But other people have other tastes, and the fore- 

 going summary will at least show that the catchword of 

 toujours perdrix a catchword of which I venture to 

 think that few people who use it know the original 

 context is not extremely happy. For with the posi- 

 tive receipts, and the collateral hints to any tolerably 

 expert novice in cookery given above, it would be 

 possible to arrange partridge every day throughout t 

 the season without once duplicating the dish. 



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