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Cutlets of Pigeons

Pigeon cutlets are seasoned pigeon halves fried and served with a stock-based gravy and bread crumb coating.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,039 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the pigeons

  1. Cut the pigeons in half lengthwise through the breast and back.

  2. Remove the wing bones.

  3. Turn the leg bones inside to shape like chops.

  4. Sprinkle the cutlets with pepper and salt.

  5. Fry the cutlets in hot fat until cooked through.

  6. Place the cutlets between two dishes.

  7. Weigh down the cutlets.

  8. Let the cutlets cool.

Make the gravy

  1. Mince the shallots.

  2. Fry the minced shallots in the fat until lightly browned.

  3. Pour in the stock or water.

  4. Season the liquid with pepper and salt.

  5. Boil the liquid gently for 30 minutes, skimming as needed.

  6. Strain the liquid.

  7. Heat the strained liquid when ready to serve.

  8. Optionally add sherry or claret to the gravy.

  9. Optionally dissolve red currant jelly in the gravy.

Coat and serve

  1. Dip the cutlets in clarified butter.

  2. Coat the cutlets with bread crumbs.

  3. Broil the cutlets over a clear, slow fire for 5 minutes on each side until browned.

  4. Serve the cutlets in a circle with vegetables in the center and a lemon or red currant jelly on the side.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Pepper + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,039 recipes

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,145 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Pepper + red curranttop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together267 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Shallot + beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together147 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pigeons
Provide the meat, which is cut into chop-shaped cutlets and cooked through.
Shallots
Add aromatic flavor to the gravy when minced and browned in the fat.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating on the outside of the cutlets.
Clarified butter
Carries the bread crumbs and promotes even browning in the broiler.
Stock
Forms the base of the gravy, adding savory body after boiling and straining.

The step that matters

Boil the gravy gently and skim it. Gentle boiling concentrates the stock slowly while skimming removes foam and impurities, giving a clearer, cleaner-tasting gravy instead of a cloudy, greasy one.

Flavor stand-ins for the red currant

The recipe marks red currant as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, shallot, sherry, butter, bread, beans, lemon):

  1. Orangebetter flavor fit
  2. Limeabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Cherryabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Red currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, shallot, sherry, butter, bread, beans, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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