Why it works: Parsley and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
To Broil Pigeons
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Truss the pigeons and cut them down the back.
Season with salt and place in a sauceboat.
Make the parsley butter
Preheat the grill to a high heat to prevent burning.
Melt a little butter and mix with chopped parsley.
Grill and serve
Brush the pigeons with the parsley butter before grilling.
Grill the pigeons until cooked through, about 15-20 minutes.
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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Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pigeons
- The main meat, which becomes tender and cooked through over the heat.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, and carries the parsley flavour onto the birds.
- Parsley
- Adds a fresh, herbal aroma to the butter brushed over the pigeons.
The step that matters
Grilling the pigeons until cooked through. A hot grill sears the outside quickly, so the birds can burn before the centre is cooked. Checking doneness near the end of the time helps avoid both burnt skin and undercooked meat.
“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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