(1964). Pigeons, Monarch Style - Smothered (Pigeons Au Monarque-A L'Etuvee)

Choose six good squabs; draw, singe, and clean them well; dip the breasts into boiling water to harden the skin and facilitate the larding process, then lard them with small lardons of fat pork (No. 4, Fig. 54), and braise them in a mirepoix stock (No. 419) glaze and let them get a fine color; when done, drain and dress. Garnish around with stuffed olives, truffles, mushrooms, quenelles, cocks'-combs, and kidneys, or the combs may be imitated by pieces of veal palate removed with a cutter into comb-shapes. Cover with a veloute sauce (No. 415) reduced with mushroom essence (No. 398), and thickened with raw egg-yolks and fresh butter, sending some of the sauce to the table separately. Surround these garnishings with trussed crawfish, and between these lay slices of foies-gras an inch and a quarter in diameter by three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness, breaded a la Villeroi and fried.

(1965). Potted Pigeons (Ragout De Pigeons Au Four)

After cleaning and singeing six pigeons, cut them up into four pieces; lay three ounces of butter in a saucepan with six ounces of bacon cut in quarter inch squares; when this begins to brown put in four ounces of onions cut in slices. Range the pigeons in an earthen pot or deep dish with a bed of the bacon on the bottom, the pigeons on top, and more bacon over; add salt, pepper, and sprigs of thyme; moisten with thin brown sauce (No. 414), placing here and there a few pieces of pilot cracker dipped in water. Boil and then let simmer or push in the oven until thoroughly done, and serve in the same crock they have been cooked in.

(1966). Pigeons, Printaniere Style (Pigeons A La Printaniere)

Prepare a garnishing composed of carrots and turnip balls formed with a half inch vegetable-spoon, and some large green peas; have the carrots and turnips blanched separately, and the peas simply cooked in an untinned copper pan. Break the breastbones of three tender pigeons, remove these bones and fill the breasts with a dressing made of fresh fat pork, chicken livers cooked, chopped, and pounded with a little panada and two egg-yolks. Truss the pigeons with the legs thrust inside for entree (No. 178), and lay them in a saucepan lined with fat pork, roots, and minced onions; cook them almost dry, only having a very little stock (No. 194a), reduce it to a glaze, and repeat this several times, when finished; drain them off, untruss and cut each one in two lengthwise, then reconstruct them into their former shape. Dress them on a dish leaning them against a triangle-shaped fried bread support fastened on the center of the dish, and between each pigeon set a different garnishing namely; the carrots, turnips, and peas.

Increase the quantity of stock with a little stock (No. 194a), strain, skim, and reduce it, thicken it with brown sauce (No. 414), and serve it in a sauce-boat.

(1967). Stewed Pigeons (Pigeons En Compote)

Bleed six young pigeons in order to kill them, reserving the blood in a bowl; mix with it a spoonful of vinegar to prevent its coagulating. After the pigeons are drawn, singed and well cleansed, truss them with the legs thrust inside. Glaze four dozen small, raw onions, cut eight ounces of bacon into half inch pieces and fry them for a few moments in a saucepan with butter: remove them with a skimmer leaving in the fat, and to this add the pigeons, fry them on all their sides, and season when they have acquired a fine color, then dredge over a spoonful of flour and cook together for two minutes while tossing them about, now moisten the pigeons gradually to their height with white wine and hot stock (No. 194a), stir the liquid till it boils rapidly, then leave it in this state for five minutes, afterward removing the saucepan to a more moderate fire; now add a garnished bunch of parsley (No. 123) and some mushroom peelings. When the pigeons are three-quarters done, put in both the glazed onions and the bacon and finish cooking together.

At the last moment, drain out the pigeons, untruss and range, them on a dish surrounded by the garn-ishings. Strain the sauce, free it of fat and thicken it with the blood mixed with two raw egg-yolks, cook this thickening without boiling it and finish the sauce with a piece of butter, then strain it over the pigeons.