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To Pickle Pigeons

A method of pickling pigeons in a spiced wine and vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 pigeons and season with allspice and coarse sea 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 well.

Make the pickle and cook

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

  2. Bring the pickle to a boil and add the pigeons.

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

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

Store

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

  2. Store in a stone jar, tied down 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. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 in the pickle and preserved in the jar.
White wine vinegar
Acidifies the pickle, helping preserve the meat and giving it a sharp flavour.
White wine
Forms the liquid base of the pickle, adding mild acidity and flavour.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the birds and helps draw out moisture and preserve the meat.

The step that matters

Boil in water for 1–2 minutes to plump, then dry well.. A brief boil firms the surface and plumps the birds, while thorough drying prevents excess water from diluting the pickle and weakening preservation.

Swap the white pepper

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

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

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