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To Jug Pigeons

Pigeons stewed in a jug with butter, wine, and aromatics.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,979 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

To Jug Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Season the pigeons with pepper and salt.

  2. Stuff them with their own livers, shredded with beef suet, bread crumbs, parsley, marjoram, and eggs.

  3. Sew them up at both ends and place them in a jug, breast downwards, with half a pound of butter.

Stew

  1. Stop the jug to prevent steam from escaping and set it in a pot of water to stew.

  2. Cook for two hours, ensuring it boils the entire time.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Once done, remove from the gravy and skim off the fat.

  2. Add cream, lemon peel, anchovy, mushrooms, and white wine to the gravy, then thicken with butter and flour.

  3. Serve the pigeons with the sauce poured over them.

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. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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 slow, enclosed stewing.
Eggs
Bind the stuffing so it holds together when cooked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and give the stuffing body and a soft texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and moisture into the meat.
Beef suet
Adds fat to the stuffing, keeping it moist and rich as it cooks.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the gravy.

The step that matters

Keep the jug boiling for the full two hours. The jug must stay sealed and boiling so steam stays inside and cooks the birds gently. If the water drops below a boil, the stew cools, the meat cooks unevenly, and the gravy loses body.

Swap the marjoram

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, liver, beef, bread, parsley, egg, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, liver, beef, bread, parsley, egg, butter. 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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