Pigeonneaux à la Crème

The cooking time in this recipe varies greatly with the age of the pigeons. Young birds, called squabs in the USA, take an hour or so, but tough old pigeons take much longer to become tender. The pigeons will look their best surrounded by piles of baby vegetables, a speciality of the town of Bourges where they are grown in irrigated gardens like the hortillonnages of Amiens.