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Pigeon Pie
Use one-half dozen pigeons; stuff each one with turkey stuffing; loosen the joints with a knife, but do not cut them through. Cook the birds in a stewpan with water enough to cover them until nearly tender, then season them with salt, pepper and butter. Thicken the gravy with flour and let it cool. Line the sides of a buttered pudding-dish with rich paste and cut some hard boiled eggs in slices. Alternate layers of egg, pigeon and gravy till the dish is filled, put on a cover of paste and bake till done.
A Victorian raised-pie method adapted to a pudding-dish: the birds are stewed nearly tender first, then finished under pastry. Nothing here is difficult, but almost every ingredient name has shifted.
- The birdsThese are domestic pigeons, sold now as squab, roughly 12-16 oz each dressed. Six will feed six generously. Two 1 1/2 lb Cornish hens, quartered, substitute reasonably if squab is unavailable; do not shoot your own, as wild pigeons and doves are regulated game in most jurisdictions.
- "Loosen the joints"Most likely so the pieces separate cleanly on the plate and the stuffed birds pack into the dish without snapping. Work the knife tip into the hip and shoulder joints, leaving the bird whole, as the recipe directs.
- Turkey stuffingPresumably a plain bread stuffing of the period: soft crumbs, butter, onion, sage or savory, salt and pepper, bound with a little stock or egg. Roughly 1/3 cup per bird is enough; overfilling splits the skin during stewing.
- The stewing stageSquab is small and tender; 25-35 minutes at a bare simmer is "nearly tender." Boiling hard makes the breast stringy. Season after, as the original says, because the liquid reduces into the gravy.
- Cooling the gravyNot optional. Warm gravy poured into a raw pastry-lined dish soaks and slumps the crust. Chill it until it is thick enough to hold a spoon mark, then layer.
- "Rich paste"A short crust made with a high proportion of fat — butter, or half butter and half lard — worked into flour with just enough cold water. Only the sides are lined, so the bottom is left bare.
- Pudding-dishA deep straight-sided ovenproof dish, roughly 2 to 2 1/2 quarts. Setting it on a sheet pan is prudent, as the pie may boil over at the seam.
- "Bake till done"The book gives no temperature or time. A fairly hot modern oven, about 400-425F for 35-45 minutes, will set and colour the pastry, the meat being already cooked. Cutting a vent in the top crust helps.
Pigeon pie is a long-established English pie, and it persisted in American cookery partly because pigeons were, for centuries, a managed household crop rather than wild game — dovecotes kept birds that supplied squab in spring, when little else was fat. By the time this book appeared, city cooks could buy squab from poulterers alongside chicken, and the pie had settled into something close to the form given here: birds stewed first, hard-boiled egg layered through for bulk and colour, a pastry lid over a bare-bottomed dish. Egg in savoury pies is an old habit, found in medieval and early modern English cookery.