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Preserve

Potted Pigeons

Potted Pigeons are pigeons stuffed with bread crumbs, marjoram, pork or butter, then simmered in boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Potted Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the pigeons thoroughly.

Stuff and season

  1. In a bowl, mix bread crumbs, sweet marjoram, salt, pepper, egg, and chopped pork or butter.

  2. Stuff the mixture into the pigeons.

  3. Lay the stuffed pigeons on their backs in a pan.

  4. Place small pieces of pork on the breast of each pigeon.

  5. Sprinkle a little salt and powdered cloves over them.

Cook

  1. Cover the pigeons thickly with flour.

  2. Pour boiling water over the breasts.

  3. Cook for about 2 hours, basting frequently.

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. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Marjoram + flourtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Marjoram + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together883 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Bread + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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 that is cooked whole and stuffed.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the stuffing so it holds together.
Egg
Binds the stuffing ingredients together as it sets during cooking.
Chopped pork or butter
Adds fat, keeping the stuffing and breast meat moist and flavorful.
Flour
Forms a coating over the birds that helps set and brown the outside.

The step that matters

Cook for about 2 hours, basting frequently. Pigeon meat is lean, so regular basting with the pan liquid and fat keeps the breast from drying out over the long cook.

Swap the marjoram

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, pepper, egg, pork, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, pepper, egg, pork, flour. 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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