Why it works: Thyme and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Pigeon Pie
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 filling
Prepare, singe, and draw the pigeons, then cut them in half or into quarters if large.
Cut the beef steak into small pieces.
Season with chopped bay leaf, thyme, shallot, salt, and pepper.
Fry the seasoned meat lightly in the butter.
Sprinkle with flour.
Assemble and bake
Place the mixture into a pie dish.
Cut the yolks of the eggs in half and place them on top.
Pour in enough gravy to half-fill the dish.
Cover with puff pastry.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about two hours.
Serve
If serving cold, fill the dish with stock or gravy mixed with dissolved gelatin after removing from the oven.
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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Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,585 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + thymetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,721 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Beef + thymetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,051 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Pigeons
- Provide the main meat and rich flavour of the filling.
- Beef steak
- Adds meaty body and chew to the filling.
- Butter
- Fat for frying the meat, adding richness and browning.
- Flour
- Sprinkled on the seasoned meat to thicken the gravy around it.
- Yolks of hard-boiled eggs
- Add a rich, creamy note to the filling.
The step that matters
Fry the seasoned meat lightly in the butter. Searing the meat before baking builds browned flavour through the Maillard reaction. Frying only lightly keeps the meat from drying out during the long bake.
Swap the thyme
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, beef, egg, butter, pepper):
- Parsleyfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Thymethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, beef, egg, butter, pepper. 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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