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Forcemeat for Pigeon Pies

A savory pigeon pie filled with forcemeat made from pigeon livers, herbs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,979 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Forcemeat for Pigeon Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Finely chop the livers of the pigeons.

  2. In a bowl, combine the chopped livers, parsley, marjoram, shallot, butter, and bread crumbs or flour.

  3. Season the mixture with cayenne, mace, and salt.

  4. Mix in the egg yolks to form a stiff paste.

Shape and assemble

  1. Stuff some of the mixture inside each pigeon.

  2. To make balls, dust a surface with flour, roll out the mixture, and shape it into balls the size of an egg yolk.

  3. Disperse the balls throughout the pie.

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. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Marjoram + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together287 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Livers of pigeons
Provide rich, savoury flavour and a soft, tender texture to the filling.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture into a stiff paste that holds its shape.
Bread crumbs or flour
Absorb moisture and give the filling body so it holds together.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, moister texture.

The step that matters

Forming the stiff paste and balls. If the egg yolks are over-mixed or the paste is too wet, the filling loosens and the balls spread out during cooking. Enough bread crumbs or flour helps the mixture set and hold its shape.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, parsley, marjoram, shallot, butter, bread, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, parsley, marjoram, shallot, butter, bread, pepper. 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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