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Pigeons in Jelly

A preserved dish of pigeons cooked in a seasoned broth and set in a gelatinous 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

Make the stock

  1. Wash and truss the pigeons.

  2. In a kettle, combine pigeons, veal, cloves, peppercorns, fried onion, celery, sweet herbs, and water.

  3. Bring to a boil and skim carefully.

  4. Simmer for 3 hours, adding salt after 1 hour.

  5. Remove pigeons carefully and discard strings.

  6. Increase heat to boil rapidly for 40 minutes.

  7. Strain the liquid through a napkin.

  8. Taste for seasoning; the liquid should reduce to 2½ quarts.

Set the jelly

  1. In two molds that hold 6 pigeons each, add a thin layer of jelly.

  2. Chill to harden.

  3. Arrange pigeons in molds.

  4. Cover with cold, liquid jelly.

  5. Chill in the ice chest for 6 to 12 hours.

Unmold and serve

  1. Dip the mold in warm water for 1 minute.

  2. Turn onto a cold dish.

  3. Garnish with pickled beets and parsley.

  4. 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 stock and set whole in the jelly.
Veal shank
Adds body and gelatin to the stock, helping it set firmly as a jelly.
Onion
Frying in butter first adds a deeper, sweeter savoury flavour to the stock.
Celery
Contributes aromatic background flavour to the stock.

The step that matters

Skim carefully after bringing to a boil. Foam and impurities rising early can cloud the stock and spoil its clarity. A clear, well-skimmed liquid is needed for a jelly that sets clean and transparent.

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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