Skip to main content
Main

Stewed Pigeons

A stew of pigeons cooked with bacon, butter, parsley, mushroom ketchup, and port, finished with a thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Stewed Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pigeons

  1. Empty and clean the pigeons thoroughly.

  2. Mince the livers and mix with parsley and butter, then stuff this mixture into the pigeons.

  3. Truss the pigeons with their legs inward.

Stew

  1. Place the pigeons in a stewpan with bacon slices underneath and on top.

  2. Add stock to cover the pigeons and stew gently for about 35 minutes.

  3. Remove the pigeons and strain the gravy.

Finish the gravy and serve

  1. Thicken the gravy with butter and flour, then add the ketchup and port.

  2. Bring the gravy to a boil, pour it over the pigeons, 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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

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

  3. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Mushroom + ketchuptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Parsley + ketchuptop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together990 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Pigeons
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender during gentle stewing.
Bacon
Adds savoury fat and smoky flavour that seasons the birds and stock as they cook.
Butter
Enriches the stuffing and, with flour, thickens the gravy while adding richness.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the gravy when cooked with butter, giving it body.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savoury, umami depth to the gravy.
Port
Adds sweetness and fruity depth to the gravy.

The step that matters

Thicken the gravy with butter and flour. Flour must be cooked into the butter before liquid is added, or the gravy can taste raw and form lumps. Adding the ketchup and port after thickening keeps their flavours fresh.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, mushroom, ketchup):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, mushroom, ketchup. 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.

You might also like

Mushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes