tes before it is taken up.

The age of pigeons can be judged by the color of the legs. When young,
they are of a pale delicate brown; as they grow older, the color is
deeper and redder.

A nice way of serving up cold chicken, or pieces of cold fresh meat,
is to make them into a meat pie. The gizzards, livers, and necks of
poultry, parboiled, are good for the same purpose. If you wish to
bake your meat pie, line a deep earthen or tin pan with paste made of
flour, cold water, and lard; use but little lard, for the fat of the
meat will shorten the crust. Lay in your bits of meat, or chicken,
with two or three slices of salt pork; place a few thin slices of your
paste here and there; drop in an egg or two, if you have plenty. Fill
the pan with flour and water, seasoned with a little pepper and salt.
If the meat be very lean, put in a piece of butter, or such sweet
gravies as you may happen to have. Cover the top with crust, and put
it in the oven, or bake-kettle, to cook half an hour, or an hour,
according to the size of the pie. Some people think this the nicest
way of cooking fresh chickens. When thus cooked, they should be
parboiled before they are put into the pan, and the water they are
boiled in should be added. A chicken pie needs to be cooked an hour
and a half, if parboiled; two hours, if not.

If you wish to make a pot pie instead of a baked pie, you have only to
line the bottom of a porridge pot with paste, lay in your meat, season
and moisten it in the same way, cover it with paste, and keep it
slowly stewing about the same time that the other takes. In both
cases, it is well to lift the upper crust, a little while before you
take up the pie, and see whether the moisture has dried away; if so,
pour in flour and water well mixed, and let it boil up.

Potatoes should be boiled in a separate vessel.

If you have fear that poultry may become musty before you want to
cook it, skin an onion, and put in it; a little pepper sprinkled in is
good; it should be kept hung up in a dry, cool place.

If poultry is injured before you are aware of it, wash it very
thoroughly in pearlash and water, and sprinkle pepper inside when you
cook it. Some people hang up poultry with a muslin bag of charcoal
inside. It is a good plan to singe injured poultry over lighted
charcoal, and to hold a piece of lighted charcoal inside, a few
minutes.

Many people parboil the liver and gizzard, and cut it up very fine, to
be put into the