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For Filling Raised Pies

A savory filling made from pigeons, beef gravy, mushrooms, herbs, and optional sherry, used for raised pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

For Filling Raised Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pigeons

  1. Prepare 3 pigeons by either half baking or roasting them.

Make the gravy

  1. In a stewpan, combine 1 quart of beef gravy with 1 ounce of butter and ½ ounce of flour to thicken.

  2. Simmer the mixture over low heat, gradually adding the remaining gravy until smooth.

  3. Add the pigeons and simmer until they are fully cooked.

  4. Optionally, add a little forcemeat and 1-2 glasses of sherry for flavor.

  5. Color the mixture a nice brown with gravy coloring.

Fill and serve

  1. Fill your pie with the mixture.

  2. If serving without a cover, garnish the top with parsley and lemon slices.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pigeons
Provide the main meat, which is cooked through in the simmering gravy.
Beef gravy
Forms the moist, savoury liquid that carries the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the thickened base.
Flour
Thickens the gravy into a smooth, body-rich sauce.

The step that matters

Thickening the gravy smoothly. Flour must be cooked into the butter and gravy slowly over low heat and added gradually. Adding it all at once or simmering too hard can leave lumps and a thin or uneven texture.

“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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