Why it works: Pork and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,933 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓
Broiled Pigeons
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Split the pigeons down the back.
Lard the pigeons with small strips of fat pork.
Broil and serve
Place the pigeons on a broiler.
Broil over a moderate fire for 30 minutes.
Serve on hot buttered toast.
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.
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Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,933 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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 cooks through over the fire while staying tender.
- Fat pork
- Melts slowly during broiling, adding moisture and richness to the lean pigeon meat.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavour to the toast that the pigeons are served on.
The step that matters
Broil over a moderate fire for 30 minutes. A moderate heat lets the thick pigeon meat cook through while the larded fat renders and the skin browns, without scorching the outside before the centre is done.
“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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