can i still eat these partridges?!

Seakay

Found a couple of things:

"Brining meat (that is, putting meat into a salt-water solution) adds moisture to the meat through osmosis. Osmosis happens when water flows from a lower concentration of a solution to a higher concentration through a semipermeable membrane. In meat, this membrane is the plasma membrane that surrounds the individual cells. When meat is placed in a brine, the meat's cell fluids are less concentrated than the salt water in the brining solution. Water flows out of the cells in the meat and salt flows in. The salt then dissolves some of the fiber proteins, and the meat's cell fluids become more concentrated, thus drawing water back in. Brining adds salt and water to the cells so that when the meat is cooked and water is squeezed out, there is still water left in the cells because water was added before cooking."


"The amount of brining time is likewise not set in stone. Even a little brining is better than none. A chicken breast may need no more than a half hour. At the other extreme, thick, dense meats, like pork roasts can really benefit from two days or more in brine. But meat can absorb only so much liquid, and left too long in a brine will taste over-seasoned and become a bit mushy."

So I'd give your meat a rinse and then cook it - from the sound of it the worst that can happen is that the texture won't be the best.

Caterina

I come from a family of hunters and one of my worst memories was seeing the shot bird left to hang "to ripen" outside the window of my granny's house, on the balcony. They were left for a few days, apparently this is something you are supposed to do with game. They stank to high heaven, but then they were plucked and eaten by all my family members (except me) with great gusto. Nobody ever had a problem with this food.

Not surprisingly, I have become a vegetarian the moment I had my own kitchen.