Potted Pigeons

6 pigeons

3 slices bacon

Any simple stuffing

1 diced carrot

1 diced onion

Chopped parsley Hot water or stock 1/4 cup fat 1/4 cup flour Buttered toast

Clean and dress pigeons, stuff, truss, and place them upright in a stew-pan on the slices of bacon. Add the carrot, onion, and a little parsley, and cover with boiling water or stock Cover the pot closely and let simmer from two to three hours, or until tender, adding boiling water or stock when necessary. Make a sauce of the fat and flour and two cups of the stock remaining in the pan.

Serve each pigeon on a thin piece of moistened toast, and pour gravy over all.

Pigeon Pie

6 pigeons Bread stuffing Salt and pepper Fat

Flour

Rich pie paste

3 hard-cooked eggs

Stuff each pigeon with bread stuffing. Loosen the joints with a knife, but do not cut them through. Simmer the birds in a stew-pan, with water enough to cover, until nearly tender, then season with salt and pepper. Make a medium thick gravy with flour, fat and liquor in which pigeons have cooked and let it cool. Line the sides of a greased pudding-dish with rich paste and cut the hard-cooked eggs in slices. Put successive layers of egg, pigeon and gravy into the dish until it is filled, put on a cover of paste and bake (at 450° F.) for one-half hour.

Wild Ducks

Nearly all wild ducks are likely to have a fishy flavor, and when dressed by an inexperienced cook are often unfit to eat. This flavor may be much lessened by placing in each duck a small peeled carrot, plunging the fowls in boiling water and simmering them for ten minutes before roasting. The carrot will absorb some of the unpleasant taste. An onion will have somewhat the same effect, but unless a stuffing with onions is used, the carrot is to be preferred. When there is an objection to parboiling (as when the ducks are young) rub them lightly with an onion cut in two and put three or four uncooked cranberries in each before cooking.

Roast Wild Duck

Clean, wiping inside and outside with a damp towel. Tuck back the wings, and truss. Dust with salt, pepper and flour. If not fat, cover the breast with two thin slices of salt pork. Place duck in a baking-pan, and add one cup of water, and two tablespoons of fat. Bake in a very hot oven (500° F.) from fifteen to thirty minutes, according to rareness desired, basting frequently. Reduce the heat after fifteen minutes. Serve with slices of lemon or orange and a brown gravy or with olive sauce. Currant jelly may also be served. Wild ducks are served rare and are seldom stuffed when roasted. An old saying is that a young wild duck to be well cooked should only fly through a very hot oven.

Canvasback Duck, Delmonico Style

This bird is in season from the last of November until March. As it feeds mainly on wild celery, it requires no spices in cooking. Its flavor is best preserved by roasting quickly in a very hot oven (500° F.) so that it will be brown on the outside and underdone on the inside. Dress it in the usual way and wipe with a wet towel. Truss its head under the wing, place in a dripping-pan and roast one-half hour, or twenty minutes if liked underdone, basting often. Reduce the heat after fifteen minutes. Season with salt and pepper and pour over it the gravy in the baking-dish.