CLASSIC SALMI' (traditional recipe)
For pheasant, partridge, woodcock, duck, goose, peacock and small birds.

Serves 6 people:

Lard as required, in slices	Bay Leaves a few
Broth a few ladles	Parsley a few sprigs
Cognac approx. half a small glass	Pepper in grains a pinch
Butter as required	Salt as required
Yellow Carrot as required	Dry White Wine approx. half a glass
Onion as required	Mushrooms 200g
Scallion as required	Truffle 1 small
Thyme a sprig

Preparation

Game is certainly not an everyday family meal. It is for this reason that game should be prepared using the best recipes in culinary tradition. 

This dish is not very difficult to prepare, it just requires the time necessary to carry out a good recipe. Salmė that we present is amongst the most refined preparations of haute-cuisine. From some texts it can be deduced that salmė should be a preparation with a base of vinegar whilst classic salmė shows not even the smallest trace of it. 

Salmė can be made with some types of game, such as pheasant, partridge, woodcock, plover, wild duck etc., but also equally well with brood animals such as goose, guinea fowl, peacock and pigeon. Whatever the animal destined to be prepared as salmė, first it should be roasted on the spit (preferably) or in the oven. If we are preparing game, the bird should be lightly undercooked. The animal is then cut into pieces and flavored with a special sauce. Let's take for example partridge salmė, you can use this as a base recipe for any other type of salmė. 

Take one or more partridges, dress the breast with a slice of lard and roast them for about twenty minutes, so that they are just cooked. Divide each partridge into five pieces in the following way: the two legs, the two filets with the wing attached and the central part of the breast. The back of the partridge should be put to one side. Remove the skin of the five pieces and trim them well. Now take a saucepan, add half a small glass of cognac, light the gas and allow the cognac to boil. Add two spoonfuls of boiling broth in which you have previously melted a little meat extract. 
Put the pieces of partridge into the saucepan, cover with a piece of well-buttered meat in order that they don't become dry and put the lid on, leaving the saucepan in a warm place near, but not on, the heat. For each partridge, finely chop half a medium-sized yellow carrot, a little less than a quarter of an onion and a scallion. Put these seasonings into a saucepan with a little butter, add a sprig of thyme, a bay leaf, a few sprigs of chopped parsley, a pinch of pepper in grains and a little salt and let them brown. Thus done, drain the fat away and douse with half a glass of white wine. Let the wine reduce to about half the original quantity and then add, again for each partridge, a good ladle of broth, in which you have already melted a small teaspoonful of meat extract. 
In the meantime you should have beaten the air into the skin and back of the partridge. Put all this in to boil, together with the sauce, letting it cook for about ten minutes. Sieve the result, pressing well down with the spoon, in order to extract all the sauce from the seasonings and chopped bones. Transfer this sauce into a small saucepan, thicken it slightly with a small knob of butter mixed into a little flour and allow it to simmer for about another ten minutes, using a spoon to remove all the impurities that will float up to the surface. Finish the sauce off the heat, adding, one at a time, small pieces of butter and mixing well to give it a velvety smooth consistency. 
Pour this sauce onto the pieces of partridge which have been kept warm and reheat everything, but without allowing it to boil. Add about ten mushrooms that have previously been cooked with a little butter (fresh or cultivated mushrooms) and a small, finely sliced, truffle. Finally, arrange the salmė on the plate. 


The Dish

When we talk about salmė, we are talking about a dish that is very important and time-consuming, even for the necessarily experienced chef. 'Wild' meats, with their unique flavor, are in themselves an interesting subject, for which reason they should be cooked with particular attention in order to obtain the best result. We must, therefore, have a long, patient cooking time with many seasonings. 


The Wine

As I have always maintained, when you decide which wine should accompany a dish, there is one, very exact, rule to respect: important dish, important wine and vice versa. 
In this case, therefore, the sommelier must choose a bottle of important red wine from his cellar. It should be one of those reserved for particular dishes, definitely amongst the dustiest bottles… the oldest ones. Therefore, we need a matured wine which, with its unique flavor, will harmonize well with that of the wild meat. We need a wine that is tannic, to the right extent, fairly alcoholic, of a good structure and intense, persistent flavor, with a somewhat bitter base that should match that of the meat.