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Fifty Lunches

A roasted pigeon stuffed with bread crumbs, bacon, pigeon livers, chicken liver, peas, mushrooms, herbs, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Fifty Lunches

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Soak bread crumbs in stock or milk.

  2. Mix soaked bread with bacon, pigeon livers, chicken liver, green peas, mushrooms, herbs, pepper, salt, and beaten egg.

  3. Fill the cavities of 3 Bordeaux pigeons with the stuffing.

Roast and serve

  1. Bard pigeons with bacon and wrap in buttered paper.

  2. Roast at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes, basting with melted butter and uncovering for the last 5 minutes.

  3. Cut each bird in half and serve on fried bread, garnished with watercress.

  4. Serve with clear gravy, bread sauce, and marrow-fat peas.

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. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Peas + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together890 recipes

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

  5. Bread + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Soaked in stock or milk, they absorb liquid and bind the stuffing while keeping it moist.
Egg
Binds the stuffing together so it holds its shape in the cavities.
Bacon
Fat renders during roasting, adding flavour and moisture to the birds and stuffing.
Pigeon livers
Add rich, savoury flavour and a soft texture to the stuffing.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and moisture to the stuffing.
Butter
Melted for basting, it adds fat that promotes browning and a rich crust on the birds.

The step that matters

Roast at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes, basting with melted butter and uncovering for the last 5 minutes.. Uncovering at the end lets the skin dry and brown, while basting keeps the meat moist. Leaving the birds covered too long steams the skin pale and soft.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, liver, chicken, mushroom, pepper, egg, butter):

  1. Peasthe original
  2. Beansfits about as well
  3. Walnutfits about as well
  4. Chestnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, liver, chicken, mushroom, pepper, egg, butter. 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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