Jugged Pigeons
6-8 Pigeons
225g (8oz) Butter
Mushrooms
White Wine
1 Anchovy Fillet
1 tbsp Cream
Flour
Nutmeg
Salt and Pepper
Stuffing
Pigeon Livers
Beef Suet
2 Eggs
Breadcrumbs
Parsley
Sweet Marjoram
Mix the pigeon livers, beef suet, breadcrumbs, parsley, marjoram and eggs together thoroughly.
Use this mixture to stuff the trussed pigeons, sow both ends of the pigeons (with butchers twine) to prevent the stuffing from escaping.
Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper.
Place into a jug (or casserole dish with a tight fitting lid) breast facing down and add the butter.
Ensure that the lid is tight fitting, so no steam can escape during cooking.
Place into a jug (or casserole dish) into a saucepan of boiling water and steam for 2 hours, topping up with boiling water as needed.
When cooked remove the twine from the pigeons, keep warm.
Skin the fat from the cooking juices.
Place in a saucepan with the cream, a little lemon peel, a chopped anchovy fillet, a few mushrooms and a little white wine.
Heat gently, adding a paste made from butter and flour to thicken the sauce.
Garnish with mushrooms and lemon slices.
How to Jugg Pigeons
Take six or eight Pigeons and truss them, season them with nutmeg, pepper and salt. To make the Stuffing . Take the livers and shred them with beef-suet, bread-crumbs, parsley, sweet-marjoram, and two eggs, mix all together, then stuff your Pigeons sowing them up at both ends, and put them into your jugg with the breast downwards, with half a pound of butter; stop up the jugg close with a cloth that no steam can get out, then set them in a pot of water to boil; they will take above two hours stewing; mind you keep your pot full of water, and boiling all the time; when they are enough clear from them the gravy, and take the fat clean off; put to your gravy a spoonful of cream, a little lemon-peel, an anchovy shred, a few mushrooms, and a little white wine, thicken it with a little flour and butter, then dish up your Pigeons, and pour over them the sauce.
Garnish the dish with mushrooms and slices of lemon.
This is proper for a side dish.
English Housewifry - 1764
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