Unless pigeons are quite young, they are better braised or stewed in
broth than cooked in any other manner. In fact, I consider it always the
best way of cooking them. Tie them in shape; place slices of bacon at
the bottom of a stew-pan; lay in the pigeons, side by side, all their
breasts uppermost; add a sliced carrot, an onion, with a clove stuck
in, a tea-spoonful of sugar, and some parsley, and pour over enough
stock to cover them. If you have no stock, use boiling water. Now put
some thin slices of bacon over the tops of the pigeons; cover them as
closely as possible, adding boiling water or stock when necessary. Let
them simmer until they are very tender. Serve each pigeon on a thin
piece of buttered toast, with a border of spinach, or make little nests
of spinach on pieces of toast, putting a pigeon into each nest.
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