Partridges with Mushrooms

Ingredients

• 2 partridges
• 0.5 cup mushroom buttons or small flaps
• 1.5 oz butter
• salt
• cayenne
• less than 1 teaspoon arrow-root
• mace
• brown gravy
• bread sauce
• catsup, wine, or store sauce

Instructions

1. Dissolve 1½ oz of butter over a gentle fire.
2. Throw in the prepared mushroom buttons or small flaps with a slight sprinkling of salt and cayenne.
3. Simmer for 8 to 10 minutes.
4. Turn the mushrooms with the butter onto a plate and allow them to cool completely.
5. Put the cooled mushroom mixture into the bodies of the partridges.
6. Sew up the partridges and truss them securely.
7. Roast them on a vertical jack with the heads downwards (or tie firmly to an ordinary spit) for 30 to 40 minutes; or alternatively, truss like boiled fowls, flour lightly, and brown in butter.
8. If stewing: half cover the browned birds with rich brown gravy and stew slowly for 30 minutes.
9. Turn the birds and simmer for another half hour with the addition of some mushrooms to the gravy.
10. Serve with brown mushroom sauce, gravy and bread sauce, or with a sauce thickened with fresh butter mixed with arrow-root and flavoured with cayenne and catsup, wine, or store sauce.