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Pigeons in Jelly

A dish of pigeons set in a clear gelatin made from veal broth, herbs, and 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. Boil the knuckle of veal (or calf's/neat's foot) and save some of the broth.

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

Bake the pigeons

  1. Season the pigeons to taste before baking.

  2. Bake the pigeons.

  3. Let them cool.

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

Clear and set the jelly

  1. Clear the jelly by boiling it with the egg whites.

  2. Strain the jelly through a thick cloth dipped in boiling water.

  3. Remove all fat from the jelly before serving.

  4. 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

Egg whites
Clarify the jelly by trapping cloudy particles as they boil, leaving it clear.
Veal knuckle
Provides gelatin in the broth, which sets the jelly once cooled.
Pigeons
Provide the main meat, cooked gently in the seasoned broth and then set in jelly.
Bacon
Adds savory, smoky flavor to the broth around the pigeons.

The step that matters

Clear the jelly by boiling it with the egg whites. Egg whites coagulate as they heat, trapping cloudy particles that then strain out. Boiling too vigorously or straining without a fine cloth leaves the jelly cloudy.

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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