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Pigeons, Fricandeau of

A braised pigeon dish with stuffed livers, suet, bread crumbs, herbs, and a rich stock-based sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Pigeons, Fricandeau of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pigeons

  1. Stuff the pigeons with a mixture of minced livers, suet, bread crumbs, parsley, thyme, salt, and cayenne, bound with beaten egg yolk.

  2. Truss the pigeons for roasting and lard their breasts with lardoons.

Braise

  1. Line a braising pan with bacon slices, add a thin layer of veal, and place the pigeons breast to breast.

  2. Add another layer of veal and bacon, pour in the stock, and add any meat bones, mace, parsley, thyme, sherry, salt, and pepper.

  3. Cover the pan and let the pigeons stew gently for 1 hour.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Remove the pigeons, strain and skim the gravy, then boil it down until reduced.

  2. Return the pigeons to the pan and baste them until glazed.

  3. Serve on a hot dish with the sauce poured around.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Liver + vealtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together392 recipes

    Shared aroma: enoic acid (butter, cheesy).

  4. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Pigeons
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender through slow, moist stewing.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Soak up juices and help bind the stuffing into a cohesive mass.
Egg yolk
Binds the stuffing together so it holds its shape during cooking.
Lardoons
Add fat into the lean breast meat, keeping it moist during stewing.
Veal
Lends body and gelatin to the braising liquid, enriching the gravy.

The step that matters

Stewing gently for 1 hour. Too high a heat makes the liquid boil hard and toughens the meat. A gentle simmer lets connective tissue soften while the pigeons stay juicy.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, bread, parsley, pepper, egg, veal, meat):

  1. Thymethe original
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, bread, parsley, pepper, egg, veal, meat. 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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