ROAST PIGEON
Clean and truss two young pigeons, mince the liver, and mix with them two ounces of finely grated bread crumbs, two ounces of fresh butter, finely chopped onion, a teaspoonful shredded parsley, a little salt, pepper, nutmeg. Fill birds with this forcemeat, fasten a slice of fat bacon over the breast of each, and roast. Make a sauce by mixing a little water with the gravy which drops from the birds, and boiling it with a little thickening; season it with pepper, salt and chopped parsley.
QUAIL ON TOAST
Take five quail, but don’t remove the legs, for you would lose all the taste of the game. Wipe them well; string them tight, so as to raise the breasts. Put a little butter on each, a little lemon juice, and inside each the quarter of a lemon without the peel. Then put a very thin slice of pork, about two inches square, around each quail, with two or three cuts in each side, and string it tight. Let cook on a good fire, and when they are nearly well done, for white meat game must be well done, cut the strings; dress nicely on toast and serve hot. Pour the juice on the quail after having taken the fat off, and put some slices of lemon around the dish, one for each quail.
ROAST TAME DUCK
Take a young farmyard duck fattened at liberty, but cleansed by being shut up two or three days and fed on barley meal and water. Pluck, singe and empty; scald the feet, skin and twist round on the back of the bird; head, neck and pinions must be cut off, the latter at the first joint, and all skewered firmly to give the breast a nice plump appearance. For stuffing, one-half pound of onions, one teaspoonful of powdered sage, three tablespoonfuls of bread crumbs, the liver of a duck parboiled and minced with cayenne pepper and salt. Cut fine onions, throwing boiling water over them for ten minutes; drain through a gravy strainer, and add the bread crumbs, minced liver, sage, pepper and salt to taste; mix, and put inside the duck. This amount is for one duck, more onion and more sage may be added, but the above is a delicate compound not likely to disagree with the stomach. Let the duck be hung a day or two, according to the weather, to make the flesh tender. Roast before a brisk, clear fire, baste often, and dredge with flour to make the bird look frothy. Serve with a good brown gravy in the dish, and apple sauce in a tureen. It takes about an hour.