Boiled Pigeons

History

This receipt appears in Eliza Acton's Modern Cookery for Private Families, published 1845. The book's contents list it as "Boiled Pigeons," immediately after "To roast Pigeons (and when in season)," within the poultry chapter. It was first issued in London by Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, and ran through thirteen editions by 1853; it is described as among the first cookery books to give lists of ingredients, exact quantities, and cooking times.

No source consulted documents an origin, an inventor, or a date of first appearance for this specific preparation. It is a plain boiling method with a standard English sauce, and the record is silent on where it came from. The receipt carries a time — fifteen minutes — but no quantities and no bird count, brevity consistent with a text written to lean on the neighbouring instructions for boiled fowl that it cross-references.

On supply: domestic pigeons in England were housed in dovecotes, and in the Middle Ages only manorial lords could keep the birds. Those restrictions relaxed after about 1600, and dovecote use declined after the 18th century. Acton therefore wrote well after that system had contracted, and no source ties her receipt to any particular source of birds, nor specifies whether mature pigeons or squabs were intended.

Ingredients

• pigeons
• plenty of water
• a little salt
• parsley and butter sauce

Instructions

1. Truss the pigeons as you would for boiled fowl.
2. Drop them into plenty of boiling water with a little salt.
3. Cook for fifteen minutes.
4. Lift the pigeons out and place on a serving dish.
5. Pour parsley and butter sauce over them.
6. Send a tureen of the sauce to table with them.