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Pigeons in Jelly

Pigeons cooked in a spiced broth, set in a clear gelatin made from boiled egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and white pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,695 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Pigeons in Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Save some of the liquor from boiled veal or boil a calf's foot.

  2. In a pan, combine the broth, mace, sweet herbs, white pepper, lemon peel, and bacon.

Cook the pigeons

  1. Add the pigeons and bake them.

  2. Let the pigeons cool, then season as desired before baking.

  3. Remove the pigeons from the broth and cover them to preserve color.

Set the jelly

  1. Clear the jelly by boiling the egg whites, then strain through a cloth dipped in boiling water.

  2. Pour the jelly over and around 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. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. White pepper + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,658 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,761 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Mace + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,315 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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 baked and then served set in jelly.
Veal broth
Forms the liquid base that sets into the jelly.
Egg whites
Coagulate as they heat, trapping cloudy particles so the jelly turns clear.
Bacon
Adds savory fat and meaty flavor to the broth.
Lemon peel
Adds a bright citrus aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Clearing the jelly with egg whites. As the egg whites heat, they coagulate and trap cloudy particles. Straining through a cloth dipped in boiling water keeps the jelly hot enough to pass through cleanly, so it sets clear rather than murky.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, white pepper, lemon, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, white pepper, lemon, egg. 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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