Take out the inwards, and stuff the pigeons with a dressing prepared like that for turkeys, lay them in a pot with the breast side down. Turn in more than enough water to cover them. When stewed nearly tender, put in a quarter of a pound of butter to every dozen of pigeons—mix two or three tea spoonsful of flour, with a little water, and stir into the gravy. If you wish to brown them, put on a heated bake pan lid, an hour before they are done, or else take them up when tender, and fry them in pork fat. They are very good split open and stewed, with a dressing made and warmed up separately with a little of the gravy. Tender pigeons are good stuffed and roasted. It takes about two hours to cook tender pigeons, and three hours tough ones. Roast pigeons should be buttered when put to the fire.
Are good stewed like pigeons, or roasted. Two or three onions in the dressing of wild ducks, takes out the fishy taste they are apt to have. If ducks or any other fowls are slightly injured by being kept long, dip them in weak saleratus water before cooking them.
A pig for roasting or baking should be small and fat. Take out the inwards, and cut off the first joint of the feet, and boil them till tender, then chop them. Prepare a dressing of bread soaked soft, the water squeezed out, and the bread mashed fine, season it with salt, pepper, and sweet herbs, add a little butter, and fill the pig with the dressing. Rub a little butter on the outside of the pig, to prevent its blistering. Bake or roast it from two hours and a half, to three hours. The pan that the pig is baked in should have a little water put in it. When cooked, take out a little of the dressing and gravy from the pan, mix it with the chopped inwards and feet, put in a little butter, pepper, and salt, and use this for a sauce to the pig. Expose the pig to the open air two or three minutes, before it is put on the table, to make it crispy.
27. Sweet Bread, Liver, and Heart.
A very good way to cook the sweet bread, is to fry three or four slices of pork till brown, then take them up and put in the sweet bread, and fry it over a moderate fire. When you have taken up the sweet bread, mix a couple of tea-spoonsful of flour with a little water, and stir it into the fat—let it boil, then turn it over the sweet bread. Another way is to parboil them, and let them get cold, then cut them in pieces about an inch thick, dip them in the yelk of an egg, and fine bread crumbs, sprinkle salt, pepper, and sage on them, before dipping them in the egg, fry them a light brown. Make a gravy after you have taken them up, by stirring a little flour and water mixed smooth into the fat, add spices and wine if you like. The liver and heart are good cooked in the same manner, or broiled.
Pig’s head is good baked with beans, or corned and smoked. It is also nice prepared with spices in the following manner. Boil the ears, forehead, and rind, (the cheek is good, but it is better corned and smoked,) till the meat will almost drop from the bones; take them up; when cold cut the meat in strips about an inch long, warm it in a little of the liquor in which the meat was boiled, season it with salt, pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Put it while hot in a strong bag, put a heavy weight upon it, and let it remain till perfectly cold. When you wish to eat it, cut it in thin slices.