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Larded Pigeons

Larded Pigeons are pigeons stuffed with a veal and ham mixture, then baked with stock and buttered paper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Larded Pigeons

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Mix the veal and ham with salt, pepper, cayenne, lemon rind, and the egg.

  2. Bone the pigeons.

  3. Fill the bodies with the mixture.

  4. Truss the pigeons as for boiling.

  5. Lard the breasts with bacon.

Braise

  1. Fry the pigeons for 20 minutes.

  2. Add enough stock to come halfway up the birds.

  3. Cover the pigeons with buttered paper.

  4. Bring the covered pigeons to a boil.

  5. Cook in a 350°F (175°C) oven until tender.

  6. Remove the pigeons from the oven.

  7. Brush the pigeons with melted butter.

Finish and serve

  1. Thicken the gravy with arrowroot or reduce it.

  2. Pour a little gravy around the pigeons.

  3. Serve garnished with delicate vegetables.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  3. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  4. Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

Minced veal
Forms a moist, tender stuffing that holds the pigeon bodies together.
Chopped raw ham
Adds savoury fat and flavour to the stuffing as it cooks.
Egg
Binds the stuffing so it holds its shape when cooked.
Bacon
Larded over the breasts, its fat keeps the lean birds moist and adds flavour.
Stock
Forms the braising liquid that gently cooks the pigeons and becomes the gravy.

The step that matters

Cook in a 350°F (175°C) oven until tender. Pigeon is lean and can dry out or turn tough if overcooked. Cooking gently in covered liquid, with the paper keeping steam in, lets the meat become tender while staying moist.

“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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