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Broiled Pigeons or Squabs

Broiled pigeons or squabs seasoned with salt, pepper, and butter, topped with salt pork slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Squab and pork work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 26 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Broiled Pigeons or Squabs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the pigeons or squabs down the back.

  2. Season well with salt, pepper, and plenty of butter.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the birds as you would chicken.

  2. Broil thin slices of salt pork.

  3. Place a slice of salt pork over each bird and serve.

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. Squab + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Squab + buttertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together48 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pigeons or squabs
The main meat, which becomes tender and browned under direct heat.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavor, keeps the surface moist, and promotes browning.
Salt pork
Renders fat over the birds, adding moisture and a savory, salty flavor.

The step that matters

Broiling the birds. Pigeons and squabs are lean, and intense direct heat can dry the meat before the skin browns. Basting with butter and rendering fat from the salt pork helps keep the meat moist while it cooks.

“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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