September Roast Partridge Recipe

September Roast Partridge

“‘It is very difficult to get partridges nowadays, and they’re very expensive. I should enjoy a partridge—a whole partridge—to myself, very much.’”
—Jane Marple, Nemesis, 1971

In this reflective novel, the final Marple story that Christie wrote, a recently deceased wealthy friend of the frail sleuth asks her to solve an unspecified crime from the distant past. Jason Rafiel, whom Marple met at the Golden Palm Hotel on St. Honoré in A Caribbean Mystery, has proposed that, if she does, she can earn £20,000. He arranges a bus tour and introductions to certain people. She must do the rest. The story begins with Miss Marple imagining the delicacies she’ll enjoy with the money: roast partridge and a box of marrons glacés. Miss Marple’s choice of meal has meaningful layers. In the waning years of the Victorian era and the Edwardian decade, shooting parties gathered on the first day of September, and, for the next week or two, the whole village feasted on the wild birds. This dish from her own treasured past celebrates solving a mystery from her friend’s troubled past. The English partridge, a small bird, feeds just one person, and she doesn’t intend to share it.

Serves 1

Ingredients 

  • 1 small partridge, roughly 1¼ pounds (0.5 kilogram)
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • Salt
  • ½ tablespoon fresh chopped thyme
  • Ground black pepper

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

  2. Rinse the partridge under cool running water, pat dry with paper towels, and coat with the olive oil and salt to taste.

  3. Place the seasoned bird in a small casserole dish. Pour 1 cup (240 millilitres) of water into the dish and add the thyme and some pepper to the water.
  4. Loosely cover the partridge with aluminum foil, leaving space between the foil and the bird, and roast for 30 minutes.

  5. Remove the foil and baste the bird with the cooking juice from the casserole dish.

  6. Roast, uncovered, for 30–35 more minutes.
  7. Remove the partridge from the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes before serving.
  8. Pair with a small glass of Sherry and a box of marrons glacés.