Why it works: Parsley and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,132 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Hot Pigeon Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Chop parsley and mushrooms. Chop pigeons' livers and hearts.
Mix parsley, mushrooms, livers, hearts, sausage meat, seasoning, and egg yolks.
Divide mixture into 12 equal parts. Prepare pigeons by cutting off legs, pinions, and part of the rump.
Fill each pigeon with a portion of the sausage mixture and shape into oblongs.
Cut rump steak into scollops and season lightly.
Boil eggs for 10 minutes, then cool in cold water and remove shells.
Roll out puff pastry into a square. Prepare a pie dish that fits the pigeons and steak.
Mix leftover pastry trimmings with flour, roll into a long piece to fit around the pie dish.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Parsley + mushroomtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,132 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mushroom + meattop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,423 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mushroom + flourtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,253 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, meat, egg, flour):
- Nutmegfits better
- Turmericfits about as well
- Thymefits about as well
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, meat, egg, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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