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Pigeons Fricasseed

Pigeons cut up, fried, and stewed in mutton gravy with morels, served on bacon with spinach.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Spinach and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,109 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Pigeons Fricasseed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pigeons

  1. Turn the pigeons' legs under their wings.

  2. Boil the pigeons in milk and water for 20 minutes.

Make the gravy and stew

  1. Prepare the bacon by removing the skin.

  2. Brown the bacon.

  3. Cut the pigeons as you would for chicken fricassee.

  4. Fry the pigeons until light brown.

  5. Add the pigeons to good mutton gravy.

  6. Stew for about 30 minutes.

  7. Incorporate morels, browning sauce, and lemon slice into the stew.

  8. Remove the pigeons.

  9. Thicken the gravy.

  10. Strain the gravy over the pigeons.

Plate and serve

  1. Place the bacon in the center of a dish.

  2. Surround the bacon with the pigeons and lumps of stewed spinach.

  3. Pour melted butter over the dish.

  4. Garnish with forcemeat balls and pickles.

  5. Serve with parsley and butter on the side.

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. Spinach + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 main meat, which becomes tender through boiling and then stewing.
Milk
Adds richness and body to the initial cooking liquid.
Bacon
Adds savory, smoky fat and browned flavor to the dish.
Melted butter
Adds fat, richness and a glossy finish to the dish.
Morels
Add earthy, deep flavor to the stewed gravy.
Browning sauce
Darkens the gravy and adds caramelized, savory color.

The step that matters

Frying the pigeons until light brown. Browning the surface creates flavor through the Maillard reaction. Frying too long or too hot can toughen or dry the meat before it stews.

Swap the spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, sauce, lemon):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, sauce, lemon. 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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