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Pigeons, Fried
Pluck, singe, and draw two young pigeons, and truss them as if for boiling. Spread a little clarified butter over them, and dredge them well with flour. Lay two or three rashers of bacon in a stewpan, place the pigeons upon these, season with salt and pepper, and turn them about until they are nicely browned all over. Add half a cupful of water, and steam them until done enough. Take them up, drain them well, dip them into some frying batter, and let them be entirely covered with it. Fry in hot fat until they are brightly browned, and serve on a hot dish. Garnish the dish with parsley, and send the gravy to table in a tureen. The frying batter may be made as follows. Make five ounces of dried flour into a paste by stirring into it half a pint of water. Mix two table-spoonfuls of oil smoothly with the well-beaten yolks of two eggs, and add a pinch of salt; mix these ingredients with the flour and water. The batter ought to be rather thicker than cream. If it appears too thick, a little more water must be added-some flours require less liquid than other. Just before the batter is used, stir into it the whites of the eggs whisked to a firm froth. Time, half an hour to steam pigeons; ten or twelve minutes to fry them. Probable cost, 2s. 2d. Sufficient for two persons.
A two-stage treatment: the birds are braised in a covered pan with bacon, then battered and deep-fried. The instructions assume you can buy pigeons in feather; almost everything else translates directly.
- The birds"Young pigeons" means squab, birds of about four weeks that have never flown, sold oven-ready by game dealers and many online butchers at roughly 12-16 oz each. Wild woodpigeon is leaner, tougher and much stronger in flavour, and whether and when you may take it depends on local shooting law; if you substitute it, expect a longer braise and a coarser result. Two squab feed two people, as stated.
- Trussing "as if for boiling"In Victorian trussing for boiling the legs are drawn in close against, or tucked into, the body and the wings secured back, rather than the extended-leg truss used for roasting. The compact shape also suits an even coat of batter.
- The stewpanA stewpan here is a wide, straight-sided pan with a lid, not a stockpot. A heavy sauté pan or small braiser does the job: the bacon rashers act as a trivet and a fat source at once.
- Steam until done enoughHalf an hour with only half a cup of water is a covered braise, and it will take squab well past pink to about 175F in the thigh. That is the point here — the meat needs to be fully cooked before battering, because the frying stage is only long enough to set and colour the coating. Check the water at the halfway mark and add a splash if the pan runs dry.
- Dried flourFlour that has been warmed in a low oven and cooled to drive off moisture, a standard nineteenth-century step for smooth batters. Ordinary plain flour is fine; sift it. Five ounces is about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons; half a pint is 10 fl oz in British measure, roughly 1 1/4 cups.
- The batterThis is a yeast-free version of pâte à frire: the whipped whites are the only leavening, so fold them in at the last moment and use the batter at once. "Rather thicker than cream" means it should coat the back of a spoon and cling to a cold bird without sheeting off.
- Frying temperature"Hot fat" for a coated, already-cooked item is 350-375F. Below that the batter absorbs fat; much above it the outside colours before the egg sets. Ten to twelve minutes at that heat is generous for squab this size — six to eight minutes, turning once, will usually give the "bright brown" wanted.
- The gravyThe recipe never says what goes in the tureen: it is the braising liquid from the stewpan, skimmed of bacon fat and, if you like, reduced. There is very little of it, so stretch it with stock rather than serving a spoonful.
Pigeon was cheap protein in Britain for centuries before it became a luxury. Large houses and many farms kept a dovecote, and the squabs taken from it in spring cost the household almost nothing. By the time Cassell's was compiled in the 1870s the recipe gave a probable cost of 2s. 2d. for a dish serving two. The technique here — cook through gently, then coat and fry — belongs to a wider family of Victorian "re-dressed" dishes, in which meat that has already been braised or is left from a previous meal is given a crisp second life in batter or breadcrumbs. What has changed is the economics rather than the cooking: dovecotes went out with cheap imported meat, and squab is now a specialist purchase.