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Pigeons, with Rice and Parmesan
Stew until tender three or four plump young pigeons according to the directions given for PIGEONS, STEWED. Boil half a pound of best Carolina rice in a pint of stock, and add to it, if necessary, a seasoning of salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg. When it is tender, throw in an ounce of grated Parmesan, and shake the saucepan until the cheese is dissolved. If there is any danger of the cheese oiling, add a little more stock. Put the pigeons on a hot dish, spread half the rice round them, and cover them with the remainder. Brush the rice over with beaten egg, strew grated Parmesan thickly over, and bake in a slow oven until the rice is brightly coloured. The best way of doing this is to spread a layer of salt upon a flat baking-tin, put the dish containing the pigeons and rice upon this, and serve them on the dish in which they are baked. If preferred, macaroni may be used instead of rice. Time, half an hour to stew the pigeons; about an hour to boil the rice; about a quarter of an hour to bake it. Probable cost, 3s. Sufficient for four persons.
A Victorian squab dish that is essentially a risotto-crusted casserole. Two things in the original need rethinking: the hour given for the rice, and the "slow oven" that is supposed to colour cheese.
- The birdsYoung pigeons here means squab — farmed birds of about 12–16 oz, sold at good butchers and by mail order. Poussin or quail work in their place; a 3 lb chicken jointed into four also suits the dish, though it changes the character.
- Stewing firstThe recipe leans on a separate entry for stewed pigeons, not reproduced here; a stewed-pigeon method of the period would brown the birds in butter, then barely cover with stock and simmer, covered, until the leg meat gives. The original allows half an hour, though squab may want a little longer. Keep the stewing liquid; it is better than plain stock for the rice.
- Carolina rice, and the hourCarolina rice was long-grain American rice, widely imported and much used in British kitchens in the nineteenth century. Half a pound is about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons; a pint (20 fl oz British) of stock is barely enough liquid, and the rice will be tender in 18-20 minutes, not an hour. Add more hot stock as it drinks it in, and stop while the grains still hold shape.
- Keeping the Parmesan from oilingThis is the hinge. An ounce of grated Parmesan stirred into hot rice will break and go greasy if the pan is over direct heat. Pull the saucepan off the burner, stir the cheese in, and slacken with a splash of stock as the recipe advises.
- Oven temperatureA slow oven is conventionally reckoned at around 250-300F - the book gives no figures - which will never colour the cheese crust in a quarter of an hour. Use 425F for 12-15 minutes, or finish under the grill, watching it - the assembled dish is already hot throughout, so this step is browning only.
- The bed of saltSpreading coarse salt on the baking tin under the serving dish is a heat diffuser, meant to stop a china dish cracking or the underside scorching in a coal-fired oven. It is unnecessary with a modern oven and an ovenproof dish, though harmless.
- Egg washOne beaten egg is plenty for the surface. Brush it thinly — a wet layer will scramble under the cheese rather than set into a glaze.
- Yield and costFour servings, as stated. The "probable cost, 3s." is a period retail figure and does not convert usefully; squab today is expensive.
Cassell's places this among the made-up dishes of the pigeon section, where the birds appear stewed, potted, in pies and under crusts of every kind - a reminder that pigeon was ordinary rather than luxurious food in Victorian Britain, supplied by dovecotes and by a trade in young birds. The rice-and-Parmesan treatment reflects a long English taste for Italianate dishes of rice or macaroni bound with cheese: rice cooked in stock, bound with cheese, moulded around a centrepiece and browned into a case. Carolina rice, named for the long-grain crop of the American Southeast, was a standard imported grain of the period and is specified in cookbooks of the time much as one might now specify basmati. The note that macaroni may be used instead makes the family resemblance plain - both are simply a starch jacket to make a few small birds into a dish for four.