This section is from the book "Soyer's Standard Cookery", by Nicolas Soyer. Also available from Amazon: Soyer's Standard Cookery.
Cut two pigeons into pieces of convenient size and fry them in two ounces of clarified dripping. Take them out of the pan and put them aside to cool. Fry a small onion (sliced) until lightly browned in the dripping used to cook the birds. Then stir in a small bunch of sweet herbs and parsley (tied together), one teaspoonful of tarragon vinegar and season with pepper, salt and nutmeg. Let the sauce boil up, and then simmer for fifteen minutes, color it with browning, and strain it into a bowl. Cut one pound of rump-steak into small pieces which should be almost square, dust them with pepper and salt, and roll them up. Place the rolls of meat in a pie-dish, together with the pieces of pigeon. Sprinkle over them some chopped parsley and a little lean minced bacon, fill up the dish with the prepared sauce, cover it closely and put it into a moderately hot oven for one hour. Let the meat get cold, add some pieces of hard-boiled egg, and cover it with pastry, leaving a small aperture in the middle of the crust, to be filled in with an ornamental rose of pastry (the latter should be baked separately) after the pie is finished. Brush the crust over with beaten egg, and bake the pie in a moderately hot oven.
 
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