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Pigeons, Stewed, with Asparagus
Prepare and stew the pigeons as in either of the two last recipes. Cut off the green tender points from fifty heads of asparagus, and divide these into pieces not more than the third of an inch in length. Wash them well, and blanch them in boiling water. When the pigeons are almost done enough, put in the asparagus, and simmer again until they are tender. Time, about an hour to stew the asparagus. Probable cost, 3s. 6d. Sufficient for two or three persons.
A late-Victorian stew that depends on a recipe printed above it, so treat it as a finishing method rather than a complete set of instructions. The asparagus timing is the part that needs rewriting.
- The hinge: the asparagusThe "Time, about an hour" line is ambiguous, and probably covers the whole stew rather than the asparagus alone, since the tips only go in when the birds are almost done. Either way, third-inch tips need only the last 4-6 minutes of the braise, long enough to heat through and take on the stock.
- Fifty headsFifty stalks, tips only, gives roughly 1 to 1 1/2 cups of cut pieces; about two modern bunches, tips only. Save the stalks for soup.
- The missing base recipeThe "two last recipes" are not reproduced here. Victorian stewed pigeon typically means birds browned in butter and then braised covered in stock until tender, often with herbs and a little bacon or ham; any braised squab or poussin recipe will carry this one.
- Pigeons todayWhat the book means is a young domestic pigeon, sold now as squab, usually 12-16 oz. Farmed squab is tender in 30-40 minutes of gentle braising; older wood pigeon needs longer and is best breasted out.
- DonenessSquab is often served slightly pink at the breast bone when roasted, but a braise of this kind carries the meat well past that. Stew until the leg meat gives easily at the joint.
- BlanchingThirty seconds in well-salted boiling water, then straight into cold water, sets the colour.
- Cost and yield3s. 6d. was a real outlay for a household dish in the 1870s-80s, though the page does not say how the cost divides between birds and asparagus. Two or three servings still holds.
Cassell's ran to thousands of short entries, and this one shows the house style plainly: recipes were built in chains, each leaning on the one above, so a single method for stewed pigeons could be dressed half a dozen ways without reprinting it. Pigeons were an everyday British meat well into the nineteenth century, kept in dovecotes on country estates and bought cheaply in town markets, which is why the dictionary treats them as unremarkably as it treats rabbit. The asparagus is the luxury here. Before reliable refrigerated transport, English asparagus meant a short spring season or expensive forced crops raised under glass and hotbeds.