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Pigeons in Jelly

A preserved pigeon dish cooked in a spiced broth, set in gelatin to form a firm aspic.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,668 recipes. Both carry gamma-decalactone, which smells peach, creamy. The science ↓

Pigeons in Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pigeons and broth

  1. Wash and truss the pigeons.

  2. In a kettle, combine pigeons, veal shank (broken into small pieces), cloves, peppercorns, fried onion, celery, sweet herbs, and water.

  3. Bring to a boil, skim carefully, and simmer for 3 hours.

  4. After cooking, remove the pigeons carefully and discard the strings.

  5. Increase the heat to a rapid boil for 40 minutes.

  6. Strain the liquid through a napkin.

  7. Taste the liquid and adjust seasoning if necessary; it should reduce to 2.5 quarts.

Make the aspic and set

  1. Prepare two molds that hold 6 pigeons each and add a thin layer of jelly to each mold.

  2. Set the molds on ice to harden.

  3. Once hardened, arrange the pigeons in the molds and cover with cold liquid jelly.

  4. Place in the ice chest for 6 to 12 hours.

Unmold and serve

  1. Dip the mold in warm water for 1 minute and turn onto a cold dish.

  2. Garnish with pickled beets and parsley, and serve with tartare sauce if desired.

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. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  2. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Clove + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Pigeons
Provide the main meat, which is cooked gently in the broth and then set whole in the jelly.
Veal shank
Adds gelatin and body to the broth, helping it set firm as aspic.
Celery
Adds savory, aromatic flavor to the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Skimming and simmering the broth. Skimming foam as the liquid first boils removes impurities that would cloud the broth. A gentle simmer keeps it clear, which is needed for a clear, firm aspic.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, onion, butter, celery):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, butter, celery. 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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