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Potted Pigeons

Potted pigeons are pigeons cooked slowly in a seasoned broth, then finished with crackers and thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Potted Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the pigeons breast down in a porcelain kettle, close enough to prevent movement.

  2. Fill the bodies with well-seasoned dressing and add cold water and a few cloves.

Cook

  1. Cover tightly and boil slowly for 3 to 4 hours.

  2. Toast some crackers.

  3. Cover the pigeons with the toasted crackers and stew for 5 minutes.

Serve

  1. Transfer the pigeons to a deep dish, thicken and season the gravy, and pour it over the pigeons.

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

What each ingredient does

Pigeons
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through long, slow moist cooking.
Crackers
Toasted crackers cover the pigeons and add a toasted, grainy flavour and body.
Gravy thickener
Thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy that coats the pigeons.

The step that matters

Boiling slowly for 3 to 4 hours. Gentle simmering keeps the liquid just below a hard boil, so the tough pigeon meat breaks down gradually without toughening or drying. A rapid boil would make the meat stringy and reduce the liquid too quickly.

“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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