Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Take a piece of the stale crumb of bread, and shape it neatly, making it three and a half inches high, the bottom part four inches square, and the toj) part two and a half inches square. Fry this in hot butter until it is lightly browned all over, then drain it from the fat, and fix it in the middle of a dish with paste made of the white of egg mixed smoothly with a little flour. Take up the pigeons, and lean each one against one of the sides of the piece of fried bread. Arrange the vegetables between the pigeons, so as to hide the bread entirely from view, and ornament the top with a cauliflower, or half a dozen Brussels sprouts. Pour a little white sauce over the pigeons only, and send a little more to table in a tureen. Time, half an hour to stew the pigeons. Probable cost of pigeons, from 9d. to Is. 9d. each. Sufficient for four or five persons. Pigeons, Stewed (another way).— Make a stuffing with pigeons' livers parboiled and bruised in a mortar, add bread-crumbs, butter, pepper, salt, pounded cloves, parsley, sweet herbs chopped small, and the yolk of an egg. Fill the birds with this stuffing, and tie them up at both ends. Half roast or fry them, then place them in good gravy or beef broth, along with an onion stuck with cloves, a bunch of sweet herbs, and a slice of lemon. Stew the pigeons very gently for twenty minutes, strain and skim off the fat, add pickled mushrooms, hard-yolk-of-egg balls and forcemeat-balls. It is an improvement to lard the pigeons. Pigeons Stewed with Asparagus.— Prepare and stew the pigeons as in either of the two last recipes. Cut off the green tender points from fifty heads of asparagus, and divide these into pieces not more than the third of an inch in length. Wash them well, and blanch them in boiling water. When the pigeons are almost done enough put in the asparagus, and simmer again until they are tender. Time, half an hour to stew the asparagiis. Probable cost, 3s. 6d. Sufficient for two or three persons. Pigeons Stewed with Cabbage.— Pluck, singe, and draw two pigeons, and stuff them with a forcemeat made as follows : — Mince the livers finely, and mix with them an equal quantity of finely-shred beef suet, and grated bread-crumbs. Add a little pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg, a table-spoonful of chopped parsley, and a salt-spoonful of powdered thyme, lloisten the whole with the yolk of a beaten egg. Truss the pigeons firmly, as if for boiling. Half boil a good-sized white cabbage, and shred it finely. Drain thoroughly, and lay it at the bottom of a stewpan. Place the pigeons upon it, cover them with white stock, put the lid on the saucepan, and stow the whole gently for twenty minutes, then add a lump of butter the size of an egg rolled in flour, and two table-spoonfuls of thick cream. Stew a few minutes longer, and serve as hot as possible. The pigeons should be served on a hot dish with the cabbage and sauce round them. Probable cost, 2s. 6d. Sufficient for two or three persons. Pigeons Stewed with Green Peas, — Pluck, draw, and singe two plump young PIG ( 5G5 ) PIG