PIGEONS, Roast.
Ingredients.—Pigeons, 3 oz. of butter, pepper and salt to taste. Trussing.—Pigeons, to be good, should be eaten fresh (if kept a little, the flavour goes off), and they should be drawn as soon as killed. Cut off the heads and necks, truss the wings over the backs, and cut off the toes at the first joint: previous to trussing, they should be carefully cleaned, as no bird requires so much washing. Mode.—Wipe the birds very dry, season them inside with pepper and salt, and put about ¾ oz. of butter into the body of each: this makes them moist. Place them at a bright fire, and baste them well the whole of the time they are cooking (they will be done enough in from 20 to 30 minutes); garnish with fried parsley, and serve with a tureen of parsley and butter. Bread sauce and gravy, the same as for roast fowl, are exceedingly nice accompaniments to roast pigeons, as also egg-sauce. Time.—From 20 minutes to ½ hour. Average cost, 6d. to 9d. each. Seasonable from April to September; but in the greatest perfection from Midsummer to Michaelmas.
ROAST PIGEON.