Timbale of Pigeons with Truffles

Pastries filled with half-pigeons and truffles.

Pluck, singe and clean eight pigeons, truss them, chop them into halves, put them in a sautepan with butter or bacon fat, adding a tablespoonful of parsley, two table-spoonfuls of mushrooms, and four tablespoonfuls of truffles, all finely chopped. Season to taste with grated nutmeg, salt and pepper, and boil over a slow fire for fifteen minutes. Let them cool in the liquor, and remove as many bones as possible. Fill a mould with paste, mask the bottom and sides with game forcemeat, put in the halves of pigeons, with a few slices of truffles intermixed, pour over the butter from the fryingpan, cover over with a little more of the paste, set the mould in a moderate oven, and bake for an hour and a half. Turn it out when done, and serve.