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To Jug Pigeons

Pigeons stewed in a jug with butter, cream, wine, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,979 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

To Jug Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pigeons

  1. Truss and season the pigeons with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  2. Stuff them with a mixture of their own livers, beef suet, bread crumbs, parsley, marjoram, and 2 eggs.

  3. Sew them up at both ends and place them in a jug, breast down, with ½ pound of butter.

  4. Seal the jug tightly to prevent steam from escaping.

Stew

  1. Place the jug in a pot of water and stew for at least 2 hours, ensuring it boils continuously.

  2. Once cooked, remove the pigeons from the gravy and skim off the fat.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Add a spoonful of cream, a little lemon peel, an anchovy, and a few mushrooms to the gravy.

  2. Stir in a little white wine and thicken the sauce with butter and flour.

  3. Serve the pigeons and pour the sauce over them, garnishing with sliced lemon.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the stuffing so it holds together during the long stew.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the gravy, and with flour thickens the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce together with butter as a roux-style base.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body to the stuffing.
Pigeon livers
Add a rich, deep flavour to the stuffing.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother texture to the finished gravy.

The step that matters

Keep the water boiling throughout the stew. The jug is sealed and cooked in a water bath for at least 2 hours. If the water stops boiling, the pigeons cook unevenly and the gravy may not reach a safe, tender state, so the pot must be kept at a steady boil.

Swap the marjoram

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, liver, beef, bread, parsley, egg, butter):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Marjoramthe original
  3. Sagefits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, liver, beef, bread, parsley, egg, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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