Take four pigeons and stuff them with chopped oysters, seasoned
with pepper, salt, mace, and nutmeg. Score the breasts, and loosen
all the joints with a sharp knife, as if you were going to carve
them for eating; but do not cut them quite apart. Make a
sufficient quantity of nice suet paste, allowing a pound of suet
to two pounds of flour; roll it out thick, and divide it into
four. Lay one pigeon on each sheet of the paste with the back
downwards, and put at the lower part of the breast a piece of
butter rolled in flour. Close the paste over the pigeon in the
form of a dumpling or small pudding; pouring in at the last a very
little cold water to add to the gravy. Tie each dumpling in a
cloth, put them into a pot of hot water, and boil them two hours.
Send them to table with made gravy in a boat.
Partridges or quails may be cooked in this manner; also chickens,
which must be accompanied by egg sauce. These dumplings or
puddings will be found very good.