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To Pickle Pigeons

A method of pickling pigeons with spices, wine, vinegar, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Pickle Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pigeons

  1. Bone the pigeons and turn them inside out.

  2. Lard the inside and season with allspice and salt.

  3. Turn them back and tie the neck and rump with thread.

  4. Boil in water for 1-2 minutes to plump, then dry them well.

Make the pickle

  1. Prepare a pickle with equal parts white wine and white wine vinegar, adding white pepper, allspice, sliced ginger, nutmeg, and bay leaves.

  2. When the pickle boils, add the pigeons.

  3. Small pigeons need 15 minutes; large ones need 20 minutes.

  4. Remove the pigeons, wipe them, and let them cool.

Pickle and seal

  1. Once the pickle is cold, remove the fat and return the pigeons to the jar.

  2. Seal the jar with a bladder to keep out air.

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. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pigeons
Provide the meat that is cooked and preserved in the pickle.
White wine vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the birds and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
White wine
Forms the liquid base of the pickle alongside the vinegar, adding mild acidity and flavour.
Marrow
Adds richness and fat to the dish.
Hard yolks of eggs
Add body and richness to the dish.

The step that matters

Keep the pigeons submerged and sealed in the cold pickle. Acid in the pickle preserves the meat only when it covers the birds fully and the jar excludes air. Exposed pieces can spoil, so the seal and cooling must be done properly.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (allspice, white wine, vinegar, ginger, nutmeg, egg, pepper):

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, white wine, vinegar, ginger, nutmeg, egg, pepper. 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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