Skip to main content
Main

English Jugged Pigeons

A dish of pigeons cooked in a covered iron pot with a breadcrumb and pork stuffing, seasoned and served with a tomato ketchup gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Celery and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

English Jugged Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and wash the pigeons.

  2. Stuff the pigeons with a mixture of breadcrumbs, chopped fat pork, powdered egg yolks, and boiled chopped celery. Season the stuffing with onion juice, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Truss the pigeons by tying the wings and legs close to the bodies.

Cook

  1. Pack the pigeons in a covered agate-iron pail.

  2. Submerge the pail in boiling water, ensuring it is covered but not floating.

  3. Place a weight on top to prevent the pail from tipping during boiling.

  4. Cook for three hours if the pigeons are tough.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Remove the pigeons.

  2. Thicken the gravy with browned flour. Add tomato ketchup. Boil the gravy.

  3. Pour the gravy 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

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. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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

Pigeons
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle cooking.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb juices and add body to the stuffing, keeping it moist.
Chopped fat pork
Adds fat and richness, keeping the stuffing moist and flavorful during cooking.
Powdered egg yolks
Bind the stuffing and add richness to its texture.
Browned flour
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavor.

The step that matters

Submerging the pail in boiling water. The pail must stay covered and fully submerged but not float, so the birds cook gently and evenly by steam and water heat. If it tips or floats, heat becomes uneven and the contents may cook unevenly or spill water in.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, egg, celery, pepper, flour, tomato, ketchup. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipes