milk two or three hours, then mix it with the hard egg, a little nutmeg, pepper, salt and a little sage chopped fine, a very little melted butter, and stir it together: tie one end of the skin, and fill it with ingredients, tie the other end tight, and put all together in a sauce-pan, with a quart of good mutton broth, a bundle of sweet-herbs, an onion, some whole pepper, mace, two or three cloves tied up loose in a muslin rag, and a very little piece of lemon-peel; cover them close, and let them stew till quite tender, then take a small French roll toasted brown on all sides, and put it into the sauce-pan, give it a shake, and let it stew till there is just gravy enough to eat with them, then take out the onion, sweet-herbs, and spice, lay the roll in the middle, the giblets round, the pudding cut into slices and laid round, and then pour the sauce over all.
Another way.
TAKE the giblets clean picked and washed, the feet skinned and bill cut off, the heat cut in two, the pinion bones broke into two, the liver cut in two, the gizzard cut into four, the pipe pulled out of the neck, the neck cut in two: put them into a pipkin with half a pint of water, some whole pepper, black and white, a blade of mace, a little sprig of thyme, a small onion, a little crust of bread, then cover them close, and set them on a very slow fire. Wood-embers is best. Let them stew till they are quite tender, then take out the herbs and onions, pour them into a little dish. Season them with salt.
To roast pigeons.
FILL them with parsley clean washed and chopped, and some pepper and salt rolled in butter; fill the bellies, tie the neck-end close, so that nothing can run out, put the skewer through the legs, and have a little iron on purpose, with six hooks to it, and on each hook hand a pigeon; fasten one end of the string to the chimney, and the other end to the iron (this is what we call the poor man's spit) flour them, baste them with butter, and turn them gently for fear or hitting the bars. They will roast nicely, and be full of gravy. Take care how you take them off, not to lose any of the liquor. You may melt a very little butter, and put into the dish. Your pigeons ought to be quite fresh, and not too much done. This is by much the best way of doing them, for then they will swim in their own gravy, and a very little melted butter will do.
