Since hunting has ceased to be the main means of obtaining food, and people have learned to raise poultry and livestock, game has begun to be valued much higher than the result of the work of livestock breeders. Nutritionists argue that the meat of wild birds and animals is more beneficial because it is less greasy. And they did not consume artificial feeds, additives and hormones.
However, even in times of greater prevalence of hunting, grouse was valued for its tender, juicy meat and was considered a worthy product even for the royal (royal) table.
National preferences
Partridge is an international bird. It is found, perhaps, everywhere, except for absolutely tropical places and Antarctica. And in each country there are ideas about how to cook a partridge. The Germans extinguish it, and always as part of a vegetable stew. In Russia, it is customary to fry a bird. Americans bake it in the oven or in the form of a barbecue. The French, in general, do not eat partridges as a whole: they make booths and soups from the carcass, and they use meat as pastes and soufflés.
But these are just traditions that do not have to be followed. Any way to prepare a partridge gives consistently delicious results. So you can choose any, but you can try everything.
Bird selection
Hunters, undoubtedly, are well versed in the quality of the hunted. But ordinary townspeople are far from nature and can only appreciate a piece of chopped pork or "stati" chicken. And there is a rather serious risk that such an illiterate person will buy absolutely not what he would like.
So, before you prepare a partridge, you must first buy it. Choosing a bird, you need to look at her armpit. The skin under the wings should be thin, supple and soft. If she is rough or hard, before you is an “old woman”, from whom nothing good will come of it.
In the same secret place there should be no spots. They are? Partridge, to put it mildly, stale. If the bird is not plucked, you need to look closely at the feathers: piled, as if wet, also indicate that the carcass lies on the counter for many days.
Carcass cutting
In stores and supermarkets, game is usually sold frozen and already cut. But if you are lucky to find a fresh bird before you cook it, you need to gut it. How to prepare a partridge for sending to the fire?
Suppose you can pinch a bird without extraneous advice. Offal are also removed without much subtlety. And here comes the attention! The partridge must be pulled goiter. Since the bird is small, its head is usually not cut off, only its eyes are removed, and then the head is hidden under the wing. The claws should be cut off, and the legs bent back. Now your bird is ready for further processing.
Partridge and oven
In our opinion, this wild bird is too small to fry. Therefore, people who know how to cook a partridge deliciously prefer to use an oven. Naturally, because of the small size of the bird, the calculation of products always goes to several carcasses - because of one, the stove should not be lit. Usually, four birds are cooked at once (if you do not have a very large family).
Most recipes are offered before you cook a partridge in the oven, marinate it. Firstly, this way it will lose less weight, and secondly, the meat will become softer and more aromatic. So first prepare the sauce. We warm together the vegetable and butter (in a ratio of 1: 1). In this mixture, quickly fry the partridges (five minutes). Add the lavrushka, thyme, shallots. You can pour chicken stock. On a small fire, the saucepan should boil for an hour. Then the carcasses are laid down, the broth is filtered out, juice or jelly of red currant (1 tbsp.), Black berries and grated beetroot (50 g each) are added to it. Everything boils for 3-4 minutes and is removed.
Butter, mashed with the same charlotte, salt and thyme, is rubbed into partridges, which are then wrapped in thin plates of bacon. Then the prepared birds are put in the cold for an hour. This partridge recipe offers very soft pickling.
On a baking sheet we lay slices of bread with a thin layer of butter, on them - partridges. We put in a hot oven. After a quarter of an hour, when the bread is fried, it is removed, and the game is left in the oven. When she becomes rosy, she is again laid on bread, watered with sauce and asked everyone to the table.
Hunting secret
Miners advise how to cook a partridge in the oven without such culinary difficulties. Tasty, quick and easy: to stick dough on the carcass (and the simplest, dumplings or lean store shelves will do) - and into the oven. So that the dough does not dry out and serves as a complement to the game, a cup of water is placed in the oven under the wire rack. If baking is done on a baking sheet, put a stand under the carcasses (for example, wooden bars).
"Sleeve" option
There is still a good idea on how to cook a partridge in a sleeve. Gutted and peeled birds rubbed with salt. They will be salted out for about ten minutes. During this time, mustard, pepper and mayonnaise are mixed. Proportions of ingredients - to your liking. The carcasses are rubbed with a mixture and marinated for about half an hour. Do not take ready seasonings - the taste is not the same, most of them contain some kind of stabilizers.
Peel and wash the garlic cloves, cut large along. Sweet and sour apples cut into medium sized slices. In each pickled partridge, put a clove of garlic and a couple of slices of apples. The toothpicks fasten the cuts on the carcasses, and the birds are embedded in the food sleeve. The remains of apples can be placed there too.
The cut end is tied. The sleeve is seamed upwardly placed on a baking sheet, and at 180 degrees partridges are baked for half an hour. About 5-10 minutes before the end, you need to open the seam - otherwise the bird will turn out, rather, boiled or stewed. The result is amazing!
The slow cooker does not disappoint!
It turns out equally tasty if you know how to cook a partridge in a slow cooker correctly. A wide variety of products is not required, the main thing is not to disrupt the technology.
Partridges will have to be taken more than for other recipes - about six or eight. Their total weight should approach one and a half kilograms. You will also need garlic, honey (2 tbsp. L.), Red pepper, soy sauce (50 ml) and small onions.
Before you prepare a partridge in a slow cooker, it will have to be slightly boiled. Then each carcass is rubbed with pepper. Lean oil is poured into the slow cooker, and partridges are laid out in it. Onions are artistically laid out among carcasses. So that they do not fall apart during cooking, it is better not to cut off the “buttocks”. Honey, garlic (or whole cloves, or coarsely chopped) and soy sauce (it is usually salted, is added, so you should try it “on the salt” before the end of cooking).
Pour enough water into the bowl so that the birds under it completely disappear. Extinguishing mode is turned on and time is set for an hour. Partridges are very small, so 60 minutes is usually enough. But if the meat is not soft, you can increase the time.
American recipe
This recipe for preparing a partridge is good in that it allows you to cook the bird on vacation and get a completely unusual taste compared to other options.
The carcasses are washed and cut across the stomach, like "tobacco chickens." By the same principle, they beat off, only very carefully and in massive parts. On both sides, the birds glisten and salt, fold into a saucepan and pour the marinade of wine and white vinegar (the latter should be a little, 10 times less than the wine). You can add to the composition and herbs - mint, oregano, basil. Partridges must marinate for at least an hour. It is possible and more - it will not hurt.
Then the birds are dried and greased on all sides with ghee (this will require 1 tbsp. L.). Barbecue partridges are fried only on the grill and only under load. Although the proposed recipe is camping romantic, you can cook it at home, at the electric grill. Each side will require 6 minutes of frying. It’s better not to move the carcasses while they are above the fire - a delicate skin will be wrapped and the taste and appearance will be different.
A sauce made of partridges is very suitable for garlic, pepper, wine (a couple of tablespoons), vinegar (it’s enough for one teaspoon) and vegetable oil (one big spoon).
Hello from Spain
The partridge with oranges is unusual in taste and interesting in cooking. It is cooked quite quickly, since it does not require preliminary marinating. The carcasses are cut in half and quickly fried in 20 g of butter (this is important!) Butter. The rosy halves fold into a deep bowl. Peel is removed from two oranges. In the original recipe, it should be very thinly cut, and then cut into strips. However, it was experimentally established that it turns out no worse if you just gently erase it with a grater.
Peeled oranges are divided into slices and get rid of seeds. Grapes from one bunch and orange slices are laid out in a pan around partridges. The contents are poured with juice that stood out from the carcasses during their frying, sprinkled with orange zest, the pan is covered and put in a hot oven, where it will be from five to seven minutes. The taste of the resulting dish can not be compared with anything!
Of course, this is far from all that can be prepared from a partridge. She goes to salads, they make fricassee and pastes from her ... However, one can begin acquaintance with this game with the proposed recipes.