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To Jug Pigeons

Pigeons stuffed with liver mixture are boiled in a jug.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Jug Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Prepare the pigeons by pulling, cropping, and drawing them without washing.

  2. Place the livers in scalding water for 1-2 minutes.

  3. Mince the livers finely.

  4. Mix the minced livers with pepper, coarse sea salt, grated nutmeg, shredded lemon peel, chopped parsley, and 2 hard-boiled egg yolks.

  5. Add an equal amount of shaved suet and grated bread.

  6. Combine the mixture with raw eggs.

  7. Roll the mixture in fresh butter.

  8. Stuff the mixture into the crops and bellies of the pigeons.

  9. Sew up the necks and vents.

  10. Dip the pigeons in water and season with pepper and salt.

Cook in the jug

  1. Place the pigeons in a jug with a piece of celery.

  2. Seal the jug tightly.

  3. Submerge the jug in cold water.

  4. Cover the jug with a tile.

  5. Boil for 3 hours.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Remove the pigeons from the jug and place them in a dish.

  2. Discard the celery.

  3. Add a piece of butter rolled in flour to the dish.

  4. Shake until thick.

  5. Pour the sauce over the pigeons.

  6. Garnish with lemon.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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 whole and gently in the sealed jug.
Livers from pigeons
Add rich, savoury flavour and a soft texture to the stuffing.
Raw eggs
Bind the stuffing so it holds together while cooking.
Grated bread
Absorbs moisture and gives the stuffing body.
Suet, shaved fine
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich during long cooking.
Flour
Thickens the butter and pan liquid into a smooth sauce.

The step that matters

Seal the jug tightly. If the lid leaks, water can enter and dilute the juices, and steam escapes so the long gentle boil may not cook the birds evenly. A tight seal keeps the flavour and moisture inside the jug.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, pepper, lemon, parsley, egg, bread, 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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