2 good plump pigeons
1 oz drippings or bacon fat
2 sliced shallots or spring
1 onions
1 oz flour
1 bouquet garni (mixed herbs)
1/2 lb red cherries stoned
1/2 oz butter
1 cream
1 1/2 pt stock

Brown the pigeons slowly but throughly in the dripping in the casserole.
Lift them out and in the same fat brown the sliced shallots. While the
onions are browning split the pigeons in half and trim the backbone with
the sissors. sprinkle the flour in the pan and brown lightly. Add the
stock, bring to the boil and add the pigeons with the bouguet garni. Cook
in the casserole in a slow to moderate oven for about 1 1/2 hours. then
remove the pigeons carefully and keep warm. Reduce the sauce by boiling
quickly until it is of a syrupy consistancy. Strain the sauce and replace
it in the pigeons to reheat throughly. Add cream to taste. Sauter the
stoned cherries quickly in the butter. Dish the pigeons. Pour over the
sauce and scatter over the cherries, which should be sizzling hot.

NB. The European wood pigeon is _Columba palumbus_ and is a large bird of
length 16-18 inches long and live weight of about 1lb. One pigeon can *just
about* feed two people but one pigeon per person is a good meal but not too
much.

Jonathan HUNTING@TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU rec.hunting

NYC Nutrilink: N0^00000,N0^00000,N0^00000,N0^00000,N0^00000
NYC Nutrilink: N0^00000,N0^00000,N0^00000,N0^00000,N0^00000