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Mrs. Lincoln's Boston cook book

1884

Page 156 · 5 recipe records on this page

Presented as published in 1884. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Clean, wipe, lard the breast and legs, and truss. Rub with salt and soft butter^ and dredge with flour. Roast twenty minutes in a quick oven if liked rare, thirty minutes if well done. Serve ^ith bread sauce. Potted Pigeons. Draw and clean. Break the legs just above the feet ; leave enough below the joint to tie down to the tail. Wash and wipe. If old and tough, cover them with vine- gar^ spiced and flavored with onion ^ and let them stand several hours. This makes them tender. Drain and wipe ; stuff, if you like, with cracker crumbs highly seasoned and moistened with butter. Dredge with salt^ pepper., ^wd flour. Yvy several slices of salt pork ; cut one large onion fine, and fry in the salt pork fat. Put the crisp fat in the stew- pan, add the fried onion, then brown the pigeons all over in the fat left in the pan. Put them in the stewpan ; add boiling water or stock enough to half cover them ; add a pinch of herbs tied in a bag. Simmer from one to three hours, or till the pigeons are tender. Remove the fat from the broth, season to taste, and thicken with flour and butter cooked together. Strain over the pigeons, and serve hot. Braised Pigeons. Prepare the pigeons as for potted pigeons, and cook in a braising-pan. Cook spinach (see page 296) ; chop it fine, and season. Spread the spinach on slices of toast^ and lay the pigeons on the spinach one on each slice. Serve the gravy in a boat. Pigeons StujTed with Parsley. {Miss Ward.) Allow one pint of loose parsley for each pigeon.Potted Pigeons Wash, remove the large stems, and chop very fine, adding salt The Boston Cook Booh. 263 and pepper and two or three tahlespoonfuls of water while chopping. Stuff the pigeons with the parsley ; add also the heart and a half -inch cube of salt pork for each pigeon. Add the water left in the tray to that in the stewpan, and cook as in the preceding rule. Roast Birds. Draw, and wash quickly ; season with salt and pepper. Pin a thin slice of salt pork on the breast. Put on a shal- low pan, and bake in a hot oven, fifteen or twenty minutes. Baste often. Serve on toast with currant jelly or with bread sauceRoast Birds. Small birds may be baked in sjjoeet potatoes^ or if large cut in halves, using the breast only. Cut the potatoes in halves lengthwise, make a cavity in each half, season the bird with salt^ pepper^ and butter; fit it into the potato, put the other half over it, and bake till the potatoes are soft. Remove the string, tie with a bright ribbon, and serve in the potatoes, garnished with parsley. An inviting dish to serve to an invalid. Small birds are also broiled or stewed. Quail. Quail may be roasted, broiled, or braised ; or the breasts only maj^ be removed and broiled. Use the bones and trimmings to make stock for a rich sauce. Woodcock. Dress, and wipe clean. Dredge inside and out with salt and pepper ; tie the legs close to the bod}^, skin the head and neck, and tie the beak under the wings. Tie a piece of bacon over the breast, and fry in boiling lard two minutes ; or roast in the oven, and serve on toast. Venison. Venison is one of the most easily digested meats. It may be cooked after the same rules as mutton or beef. It 264 The Boston Cook Book.