BIRDS WITH MUSHROOMS.—Take two dozen reed-birds, (or other nice small birds,) and truss them as if for roasting. Put into each a button-mushroom; of which you should have a heaping pint after the stalks are all removed. Put the birds, and the remaining mushrooms into a stew-pan. Season them with a very little salt and pepper, and add either a quarter of a pound of fresh butter (divided into four, and slightly rolled in flour) or a pint of rich cream. If cream is not plenty, you may use half butter and half cream, well mixed together. Cover the stew-pan closely, and set it over a moderate fire, to stew gently till the birds and mushrooms are thoroughly done and tender all through. Do not open the lid to stir the stew; but give the pan, occasionally, a hard shake. Have ready on a dish a thin slice of buttered toast with the crust all cut off. When done, lay the birds on the toast with the mushrooms all round.
If you cannot get button-mushrooms, divide large ones into quarters.
Plovers are very nice stewed with mushrooms.
BIRDS IN A GROVE, (French dish.)—Having roasted some reed-birds, larks, plovers, or any other small birds, such as are usually eaten, mash some potatoes with butter or cream. Spread the mashed potatoe thickly over the bottom, sides, and edges of a deep dish. Nick or crimp the border of potatoe that goes round the edge; or scollop it with a tin cutter. You may, if you choose, brown it by holding over it a salamander, or a red-hot shovel. Then lay the roasted birds in the middle of the dish, and stick round them and among them, very thickly a sufficient number of sprigs of curled or double parsley.
THATCHED HOUSE PIE, (French dish.)—Rub the inside of a deep dish with two ounces of fresh butter, and spread over it two ounces of vermicelli. Then line the dish with puff-paste. Have ready some birds seasoned with powdered nutmeg and a very little salt and pepper. Place them with their breasts downward. They will be much improved by putting into each a mushroom or an oyster chopped fine. Lay them on the paste. Add some gravy of roast veal, (cold gravy saved from veal roasted the preceding day will do very well,) and cover the pie with a lid of puff-paste. Bake it in a moderate oven, and when done, turn it out carefully upon a flat dish, and send it to table. The vermicelli which was originally at the bottom, will now be at the top, covering the paste like thatch upon a roof. Trim off the edges so as to look nicely. You may, if you choose, use a larger quantity of vermicelli. The yellow sort will be best for this purpose.
RICE PIE.—Pick clean a quart of rice, and wash it well through two or three waters. Tie it in a cloth, put it into a pot of boiling water, and boil it till perfectly soft. Then drain and press it till as dry as possible, and mix with it two ounces of fresh butter, and two table-spoonfuls of mild grated cheese. Take a small tin butter-kettle; wet the inside, put in the rice, and stand it in a cool place till quite cold. Then turn it carefully out of the kettle, (of which it will retain the form,) rub it over with the beaten yolk of an egg, and set it in an oven till lightly browned. Cut out from the top of the mass of rice an oval lid, about two inches from the edge, so as to leave a flat rim or border all round. Then excavate the mould of rice; leaving a standing crust all round and at the bottom, about two inches thick. Have ready some hot stewed oysters or birds, or brown or white fricassee. Fill up the pie with it—adding the gravy. Lay on the lid, and decorate it with sprigs of green curled parsley, stuck in all round the crack where the lid is put on.