Mrs. Vertrees Young's recipe for partridge pie

This recipe comes from the Covered Wagon Cookbook, a staplebound booklet published in Louisiana by the Washington Parish Fair Historical Society in 1959.

The president of the society was Mr. Vertress Young, who provided a number of recipes featured in the booklet. In the introduction, she writes:

"We, hereby, dedicate this little booklet of Old Fashioned Recipes to our loved ones, who came across our Country in covered wagons, bringing with them their Mother's Mother's recipes for good cooking. A great factor in making pioneer life happy and making modern living happy is good food."

Here is one of those recipes...

Partridge pie

• 12 doves (partridges)
• 1 bunch minced parsley
• 1 onion chopped fine
• 3 whole cloves
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 pound salt pork diced
• 2 tbsp. browned flour
• 1 pint diced potatoes
• Butter — size of an egg
• Rich pie crust

Split birds in half — put in saucepan with 2 quarts of water, when it boils, skim off all scum that rises, then add salt and pepper, parsley, onion, cloves and salt pork. Let all boil until tender, using care that there be enough water to cover birds, thicken with flour and let boil up. Stir in butter, remove from fire and cool. Line sides of buttered pudding dish with crust. Lay in birds, then some potatoes, then birds and so on until the dish is full. Pour over the gravy. Put on the top crust with a split cut in center and bake in hot oven 15 or 20 minutes.

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Other recipes in the booklet include Preacher Custard; Aunt Lillie's Fried, Battered Okra; Great-Great Grandmother's Whole Artichoke Pickle; Eierroehrli; Hopping John; Likker Pudding; and Otranto Pine Bark Stew.

If any of those intrigue you, let me know and I'll include them in a future post.