Wild pigeons may be made very fat by catching them alive in nets, at the season when they abound; clipping their wings to prevent their flying away; putting them into a field where there is a stream of water convenient for them to drink, or into a large yard; and feeding them twice a day with corn. When fattened in this manner, they will be found profitable articles for sale; the objection to wild pigeons being that they are usually so poor and lean.
FINE CLAM SOUP.—Take half a hundred or more small sand clams, and put them into a pot of hard-boiling water. Boil them about a quarter of an hour, or till all the shells have opened wide. Then take them out, and having removed them from the shells, chop them small and put them with their liquor into a pitcher. Strain a pint of the liquor into a bowl, and reserve it for the soup. Put the clams into a soup-pot, with a gallon of water, and a half pint of the liquor; a dozen whole pepper-corns, half a dozen blades of mace; but no salt, as the clam-liquor will be salt enough; add a pint of grated bread-crumbs, and the crusts of the bread cut very small; also a tea-spoonful of sweet-marjoram leaves. Let the soup boil two hours. Then add a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, divided into half a dozen pieces, and each piece rolled slightly in flour. Boil it half an hour longer, and then about five minutes before you take up the soup, stir in the beaten yolks of three eggs.
As the flavour will be all boiled out of the chopped clams, it will be best to leave them in the bottom of the soup-pot, and not serve them up in the tureen. Press them down with a broad wooden ladle, so as to get as much liquor out of them as possible, while you are taking up the soup.
This soup will be better still, if made with milk instead of water; milk being an improvement to all fish-soups.
EXCELLENT CLAM SOUP.—Take forty or fifty clams, and wash and scrub the outsides of the shells till they are perfectly clean. Then put them into a pot with just sufficient water to keep them from burning. The water must boil hard when you put in the clams. In about a quarter of an hour the shells will open, and the liquor run out and mix with the water, which must be saved for the soup, and strained into a soup-pot, after the clams are taken out. Extract the clams from their shells, and cut them up small. Then put them into the soup-pot, adding a minced onion, a saucer of finely chopped celery, or a table-spoonful of celery seed, and a dozen blades of mace, with a dozen whole pepper-corns. No salt, as the clam-liquor will be quite salt enough. If the liquid is not in sufficient quantity to fill a large tureen, add some milk. Thicken the soup with two large table-spoonfuls of fresh butter rolled in flour. Let it boil a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. Just before you take it from the fire, stir in, gradually, the beaten yolks of five eggs; and then take up the soup, and pour it into a tureen, the bottom of which is covered with toasted bread, cut into square dice about an inch in size.
FRENCH WHITE SOUP.—Boil a knuckle of veal and four calves’ feet in five quarts of water, with three onions sliced, a bunch of sweet herbs, four heads of white celery cut small, a table-spoonful of whole pepper, and a small tea-spoonful of salt, adding five or six large blades of mace. Let it boil very slowly, till the meat is in rags and has dropped from the bone, and till the gristle has quite dissolved. Skim it well while boiling. When done, strain it through a sieve into a tureen, or a deep white-ware pan. Next day, take off all the fat, and put the jelly (for such it ought to be) into a clean soup-pot with two ounces of vermicelli, and set it over the fire. When the vermicelli is dissolved, stir in, gradually, a pint of thick cream, while the soup is quite hot; but do not let it come to a boil after the cream is in, lest it should curdle. Cut up one or two French rolls in the bottom of a tureen, pour in the soup, and send it to table.