The third, or half of a pottle of small mushrooms is sometimes added to this dish. It may be converted into a compote aux petits pois by adding to the pigeons when the broth, in which they are laid, first begins to boil, a pint and a half of young peas. For these, a pint and a quarter, at the least, of liquid will be required, and a full hour’s stewing. The economist can substitute water for the broth. When the birds can be had at little cost, one, two, or more, according to circumstances, should be stewed down to make broth or sauce for the others.
Obs.—Pigeons are excellent filled with the mushrooms au beurre, of page [329], and either roasted or stewed. To broil them proceed as directed for a partridge (French receipt), page [290].
MAI TRANK (MAY-DRINK).
(German.)
Put into a large deep jug one pint of light white wine to two of red, and dissolve in it sufficient sugar to sweeten it agreeably. Wipe a sound China orange, cut it in rather thick slices, without paring it, and add it to the wine; then throw in some small bunches or faggots of the fragrant little plant called woodruff; cover the jug closely to exclude the air and leave it until the following day. Serve it to all May-day visitors. One orange will be sufficient for three pints of wine. The woodruff should be washed and well drained before it is thrown into the jug; and the quantity of it used should not be very large, or the flavour of the beverage will be rather injured than improved by it. We have tried this receipt on a small scale with lemon-rind instead of oranges, and the mixture was very agreeable. Rhenish wine should properly be used for it; but this is expensive in England. The woodruff is more odorous when dried gradually in the shade than when it is fresh gathered, and imparts a pleasant fragrance to linen, as lavender does. It grows wild in Kent, Surrey, and other parts of England, and flourishes in many suburban gardens in the neighbourhood of London.
A VIENNESE SOUFFLÉ-PUDDING, CALLED SALZBURGER NOCKERL.
At the moment of going to press, we have received direct from Vienna the following receipt, which we cannot resist offering to the reader for trial, as we are assured that the dish is one of the most delicate and delicious soufflé-puddings that can be made.
(A) Take butter, four ounces; sugar in powder, three ounces; fine flour, one ounce and a half or two ounces; and the yellow of eight eggs; beat these together in a convenient sized basin till the mixture gets frothy. (The butter should probably first be beaten to cream.)
(B) Beat to snow the whites of the eight eggs.