FORT KENT — Each fall the peppery-colored partridge are sought by hunters for the thrill of the hunt and by gourmets for the banquet table.

Some of the most delicious partridge has been served at the annual Fort Kent Rotary Partridge Fry for more than 40 years. The dinner is a “let-your-hair-down,” evening. Over the years it has been a gathering where the invited guests are people “who do for Fort Kent” or “those who have the potential of doing for Fort Kent,” said one old-timer.

Longtime Rotarian Joseph Barresi said, “People from Augusta got to know where Fort Kent was. I always believed it got us better roads than we used to get.”

The event started with a few birds and an annual stew at a member’s chalet. Today, due mostly to the palate of the late Thomas Pinkham, it’s a partridge fry.

The late “Tom” Pinkham, it was rumored, changed the partridge stew night to a partridge fry, because as the crew attending the annual party grew, the stew kept getting thinner and thinner.

“And it didn’t taste as good,” said Omer Thibodeau.

It’s been going on so long that no one is sure of how long. Today’s head cook, Randall Pinkham, can’t remember what year he started.

“I started when we had these things at Roland Perreault’s (lumber) camp on Madawaska Lake,” he said as butter melted in his frying grill.

This year Pinkham’s crew began gathering at Fort Kent’s Lonesome Pine Trails Lodge at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 14 for that evening’s fry. Those “who had done for Fort Kent,” this year’s invitees, were members of the Fort Kent Volunteer Fire Department.

Last year it was law enforcement personnel and state officials before that. Each year the governor is invited. “The only one that ever came was Horace Hildreth,” said Thibodeau. He said others who have attended in the past include the head of the Department of Inland Fish and Game and the Maine State Police and the president of the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad.

The “grill” used to fry the birds was made by Tom Pinkham from the steel of a bulldozer blade. The 2-foot-by-2-foot pan was formed from steel three-eighths of an inch thick and has 2-inch high sides. It takes two men to hoist the pan atop the gas stove in the lodge.

Pinkham’s recipe is simple. He melts 6 pounds of butter in the intensely hot pan. His batter is made from flour laced with salt and pepper. The birds, once rolled in the flour, are fried for 10 to 12 minutes. During that time, they are salted and peppered some more and turned once.

The secret of making the little birds tasty, said Pinkham, is the steamer. After frying, the birds are steamed and the longer the partridge remain in the steamer, the tastier and the more tender they become. The inch of liquid in the steamer is replenished with broth from the grill pan after each batch of fried birds is removed.

It took Pinkham, William Plourde, Barry Ouellette, Leroy Martin and Clayton Brown about 90 minutes to fry the slew of patridges — 107 of them — brought by the Keeper of the Birds Fran Berthiaume. Berthiaume and Commissioner of the Birds Richard Dumont had the responsibility of the birds once they were turned in by Rotarians.

The Rotarians, said President Norman “Bim” Ouellette, are separated into four teams for the month-long hunt.The counting is not done too honestly some years, said Ouellette. “I had all the good hunters on my team,” he said with a laugh.

The team bringing in the highest number of birds, doesn’t have to do anything the night of the fry. The team with the lowest number of birds cleans up and the others do the bartendering and additional work involved in the evening of fun.

Barresi believes, as does Thibodeau, that the annual gathering is “is a great cementer for the club. It pulls the club together. We have name calling and teasing, but it is all in fun,” he said.

After supper, Philip Soucy led a song, written by fellow Rotarian David Soucy for the an nual fry. Team captains told of their exploits in the hunt and chided each other about their hunting skills.

James Caron, in the absence of Dumont, took over as commissioner of the birds. He thanked the firemen for helping the community. “Many people don’t recognize your dedication,” he said.

“We have a good time doing this every year. Thanks for coming and thanks for what you do for the community,” he said.