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Pigeons, Cutlets Of
Divide two or three pigeons in halves length-wise, by cutting them down through the breast and back; remove the wing bones, and turn the leg bones inside, so as to shape them something like a chop. Sprinkle a little pepper and salt over them, and fry in hot fat until they are done enough. Put them between two dishes, place a weight upon the top, and leave them until they are cold. Mince two small shallots, and fry them in the fat until they are lightly browned. Pour over them half a pint of stock, or (failing this) water, and season the gravy with pepper and salt. Boil gently, and skim carefully, for half an hour or more, then strain the liquid. Heat it when it is wanted, and send to table in a tureen. A glassful of sherry or claret may be added to this gravy, or if liked, a table-spoonful of red currant jelly may be dissolved in it. When the cutlets are wanted, dip them in clarified butter, then into bread-crumbs, and broil them over a clear slow fire until they are brightly browned. Dish them in a circle, with French beans, peas, asparagus, or stewed mushrooms in the centre. A cut lemon, or, if preferred, a little red currant jelly, is an excellent accompaniment to pigeon cutlets. Time to broil the cutlets, five minutes for each side. Probable cost of pigeons, 8d. to 1s. 9d. each. Sufficient for three or four persons.
A two-stage dish: the birds are fried, pressed flat until cold, then crumbed and grilled to order, with a shallot gravy made from the frying fat. The pressing is what turns a split pigeon into something chop-shaped, and it cannot be hurried.
- The hinge: press until fully coldThe halves must sit under a weighted dish until completely cold, which in practice means several hours, or overnight in the refrigerator. Pressing while the birds are still warm will not set the flat, chop-like shape the recipe is after.
- Sourcing the birdsButcher's squab or farmed wood pigeon, roughly 300-450 g each, is the modern equivalent. Two or three birds give four to six cutlets, which the book counts as enough for three or four people alongside vegetables.
- Boning the halvesSplit down breast and backbone with poultry shears rather than a knife. Removing the wing bone and turning the leg bone inward is essentially cosmetic, giving the piece the flat outline of a chop.
- Half a pint of stockAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, about 1¼ US cups. Boiled gently and skimmed for half an hour it reduces to a modest amount of gravy, which the book sends to table separately in a tureen.
- "Broil" means grillIn British usage of this period broiling is cooking over a clear fire of coals, not under a modern broiler element. Either works; the recipe specifies a clear slow fire and five minutes each side, and since the birds have already been fried through the aim is only to brown the crumbs.
- Clarified butter for the crumbsWhole butter's milk solids scorch at grilling heat. Clarified butter, or ghee, holds the crumb coating and browns cleanly.
- The wine and jellyA "glassful" here means a wineglassful, a loose measure usually reckoned at around 2 fl oz (about 60 ml) in cookery of the period. Redcurrant jelly, a tablespoon dissolved into the strained gravy, is a common Victorian sweet-sharp finish for game, and the recipe offers it as an alternative to the wine.
- ServingCutlets arranged in a ring with the vegetables heaped in the middle is a period presentation. Sharp acid matters more than the arrangement; keep the lemon.
Pigeon was cheap, plentiful and unglamorous in nineteenth-century Britain, kept in dovecotes on estates and farms and sold in quantity in city markets, which is why Cassell's can quote a price as low as eightpence a bird. Treating it as a "cutlet" is a piece of kitchen ambition typical of the era: boning, flattening, pressing cold, crumbing and grilling gave a humble ingredient the shape and service of a restaurant chop, the French côtelette being simply a cutlet. The two-stage method may also have had a practical logic in a household without refrigeration or fast heat — the birds were cooked and pressed in advance, and only the five minutes a side over the coals happened when dinner was called. The redcurrant jelly and cut lemon place the dish firmly in the British game tradition, where sweet or sour accompaniments were expected with any dark-fleshed bird.