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Pigeon Pie

A savory pie made with pigeons, beefsteak, eggs, gizzards, and a creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pigeon Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pigeons

  1. Rub the pigeons inside and out with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  2. Place a bit of butter and optional parsley mixed with the livers inside each pigeon.

Assemble the pie

  1. Lay a beefsteak at the bottom of a pie dish and place the pigeons on top.

  2. Insert a hard-boiled egg between every two pigeons.

  3. Add 1 cup of water to the dish and place a bit of ham on each pigeon if available.

  4. Season the gizzards and two wing joints, then place them in the center of the pie.

Bake and finish

  1. Cover the pie with a crust and bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until tender.

  2. Once cooked, add a little cream and butter to the pie.

  3. If the sauce is too thin, thicken it with flour.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

What each ingredient does

Pigeons
Provide the meat that becomes tender during the long covered bake.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add richness and a firm, sliced texture to the filling.
Beefsteak
Adds meaty flavor and body to the juices collecting in the dish.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, silkier texture to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce so it clings instead of running thin.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Flour must be cooked to thicken properly; adding it raw or in excess can leave a pasty taste or lumps, while too little leaves the sauce thin.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, egg, ham, cream, sauce, flour):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, egg, ham, cream, sauce, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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