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To Stew Pigeons

A stew of pigeons cooked in brown gravy with port wine and forcemeat balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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To Stew Pigeons

four pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and brown

  1. Stuff the pigeons as you would for roasting.

  2. Brown them in a frying pan.

Stew

  1. Stew the browned pigeons in brown gravy.

  2. Add ½ cup of port wine and a few forcemeat balls.

Serve

  1. Serve four pigeons as a nice dish for an entree.

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

What each ingredient does

Pigeons
Main protein; browning them first adds savoury flavour before stewing.
Brown gravy
Provides the moist, savoury liquid that the pigeons stew in.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth to the gravy.
Forcemeat balls
Add a soft, rich texture and body to the stew.

The step that matters

Browning the pigeons. Browning triggers Maillard reactions, which create deeper savoury flavours on the surface of the meat. Skipping or rushing this step leaves the stew tasting flatter, because the gravy cannot make up for the missing browned flavour.

“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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