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Pigeons En Casserole
Pigeons or squabs Bacon 3 tablespoons butter or other fat 1 Spanish onion Veal broth or white stock Vegetables, as desired Flour Clean and wash young pigeons and tie a strip of bacon around each one, or lard the breasts if preferred. Place the butter or other fat in a casserole, slice a mild, Spanish onion over the fat, set the pigeons on the onion in the casserole, cover the casserole and set on the stove over a low heat with an asbestos mat under the casserole to protect it from direct heat and to insure slow cooking. Cook on top of the stove for fifteen minutes. Add enough veal broth or white stock to half cover the pigeons and set in the oven (350 degrees F.) to cook until tender (2-2 1/2 hrs.). When nearly done, vegetables may be added. At serving-time thicken the liquor in the casserole by stirring into it flour mixed smooth in a little water, allowing one tablespoon of flour for each cup of liquid.
A slow stove-top-then-oven braise from the era when a "casserole" was an earthenware pot you cooked in on a burner as well as in the oven. Most of the adjustment needed is in the cookware and the timing.
- Skip the asbestos matThe asbestos pad was standard equipment for buffering earthenware from a direct flame, and it should not be used now — asbestos fibres are a serious inhalation hazard once the mat frays. A modern flame tamer or heat-diffuser disc does the same job, as does a heavy enamelled cast-iron Dutch oven set over the lowest burner.
- What "casserole" means hereA lidded pot that goes from burner to oven, not a shallow baking dish. Anything under about 4 quarts will crowd more than two birds.
- Cut the cooking timeTwo to two and a half hours will reduce farmed squab to threads. Young squab of about 1 lb each are tender after 45–60 minutes of braising; older wood pigeon or a tough bird may want 1 1/2 hours. Test by twisting a leg — it should loosen easily.
- Sourcing the birdsFarm-raised squab is sold frozen by game butchers and some Asian markets, usually 12–16 oz dressed. Wild pigeon is legal to take only under local game rules and is a leaner, stronger-tasting bird.
- Veal broth or white stockAn unroasted stock, pale and gelatinous. Modern unsalted chicken stock is the closest supermarket substitute; avoid dark beef stock, which will bury the bird.
- BaconUse a thick-cut streaky rasher per bird, tied on with kitchen string, and expect to brown the breasts uncovered for the last few minutes if you want colour.
- Adding the vegetables"When nearly done" means the last 20 minutes for turned carrots, small onions or turnips; peas or mushrooms need 5–8. Added at the start they disintegrate into the sauce.
- The thickeningOne tablespoon flour per cup of liquid gives a light gravy. Mix it to a thin slurry with cold water, stir it in off the boil, then simmer two or three minutes to lose the raw-flour taste.
- YieldOne bird per person as a main course, half a bird as a first course. Serve with the pot liquor spooned over, and something starchy to catch it.