Marion Harland's Complete Cook Book: A Practical and Exhaustive Manual of Cookery and Housekeeping

forty minutes, basting with the gravy in the pan three times. Take off the bacon, wash the birds with butter, dredge with flour and brown while you make the gravy. Thicken this with browned flour, add the juice of half a lemon, boil up, pour in a small glass of claret and serve. Garnish with the ham and whole olives. Braised wild pigeons Clean, wash carefully; put an olive in the body of each and bind legs and wings neatly to the sides of the birds. Fry six or eight slices of fat salt pork in the frying-pan until crisp, but not burned. Strain the fat back, lay in the pigeons and roll over and over in the boiling grease until seared on all sides. Take them up and keep hot. Add a spoonful of butter to the hot fat, and when it hisses, fry a large onion, sliced, in it. Lay the pigeons upon the grating of the roaster, pour the boiling fat and onion over them; add a cupful of weak stock; cover closely and cook steadily for three-quarters of an hour. Test the birds with a skewer or fork, and if tender wash with butter, dredge and brown. Remove to a hot dish and make the gravy. Thicken with a brown roux, and season to taste; stir in a dozen stoned olives. “Pimolas” are nice if you can get them. If you can get fresh mushrooms, fry or broil a dozen and lay about the pigeons when they are dished. Pass currant jelly with them. Stewed wild pigeons Wash well, when you have cleaned them, rinsing out with soda and water, and leave in salt and water for an hour. Chop fat corned pork fine, season with onion juice and paprika, and put a teaspoonful into the body of each bird. Truss neatly, winding the body about with soft thread, and put into a saucepan. Cover with cold water and simmer gently until tender. Take up then and lay in a fire-proof dish. Wash with butter beaten to a cream with lemon juice, onion juice and finely