Ingredients.—A thin slice of bacon, 1 onion, 1 blade of mace, 6 peppercorns, 3 or 4 sprigs of thyme, 1 pint of gravy, pepper and salt to taste, thickening of butter and flour. Mode.—Put the liver, heart, and pettitoes into a stewpan with the bacon, mace, peppercorns, thyme, onion, and gravy, and simmer these gently for ¼ hour; then take out the heart and liver, and mince them very fine. Keep stewing the feet until quite tender, which will be in from 20 minutes to ½ hour, reckoning from the time that they boiled up first; then put back the minced liver, thicken the gravy with a little butter and flour, season with pepper and salt, and simmer over a gentle fire for 5 minutes, occasionally stirring the contents. Dish the mince, split the feet, and arrange them round alternately with sippets of toasted bread, and pour the gravy in the middle. Time.—Altogether 40 minutes. Sufficient for 3 or 4 persons. Seasonable from September to March.
PIGEON, to Carve.
A very straightforward plan is adopted in carving a pigeon: the knife is carried sharply in the direction of the line as shown from 1 to 2, entirely through the bird, cutting it into two precisely equal and similar parts. If it is necessary to make three pieces of it, a small wing should be cut off with the leg on either side, thus serving two guests; and, by this means, there will be sufficient meat left on the breast to send to the third guest.
PIGEON.
PIGEON PIE (Epsom Grand-Stand Recipe).
Ingredients.—1½ lb. of rump-steak, 2 or 3 pigeons, 3 slices of ham, pepper and salt to taste, 2 oz. of butter, 4 eggs, puff crust. Mode.—Cut the steak into pieces about 3 inches square, and with it line the bottom of a pie-dish, seasoning it well with pepper and salt. Clean the pigeons, rub them with pepper and salt inside and out, and put into the body of each rather more than ½ oz. of butter; lay them on the steak, and a piece of ham on each pigeon. Add the yolks of four eggs, and half fill the dish with stock; place a border of puff paste round the edge of the dish, put on the cover, and ornament it in any way that may be preferred. Clean three of the feet, and place them in a hole made in the crust at the top: this shows what kind of pie it is. Glaze the crust,—that is to say, brush it over with the yolk of an egg,—and bake it in a well-heated oven for about 1¼ hour. When liked, a seasoning of pounded mace may be added. Time.—1¼ hour, or rather less. Average cost, 5s. 3d. Sufficient for 5 or 6 persons. Seasonable at any time.
PIGEONS, Broiled.
Ingredients.—Pigeons, 3 oz. of butter, pepper and salt to taste. Mode.—Take care that the pigeons are quite fresh, and carefully pluck, draw, and wash them; split the backs, rub the birds over with butter, season them with pepper and salt, and broil them over a moderate fire for ¼ hour or 20 minutes. Serve very hot, with either mushroom-sauce or a good gravy. Pigeons may also be plainly boiled, and served with parsley and butter; they should be trussed like boiled fowls, and take from ¼ hour to 20 minutes to boil. Time.—To broil a pigeon, from ¼ hour to 20 minutes; to boil one, the same time. Average cost, from 6d. to 9d. each. Seasonable from April to September, but in the greatest perfection from Midsummer to Michaelmas.