Skip to main content
Preserve

Pigeon Pie

A savory pie made with pigeon, steak, herbs, onions, and a sauce, topped with pastry and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,563 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pigeon Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Brown and simmer the sauce

  1. Fry the pigeon pieces in clarified dripping until browned.

  2. Set the browned pigeon pieces aside to cool.

  3. Fry the sliced onion in the same dripping until lightly browned.

  4. Stir in the bunch of herbs and tarragon vinegar.

  5. Season with pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

  6. Let the mixture boil.

  7. Simmer for 15 minutes.

  8. Strain the sauce into a basin.

Assemble the pie

  1. Dust the steak pieces with pepper and salt.

  2. Roll the seasoned steak pieces up.

  3. Place the meat rolls and pigeon pieces in a pie dish.

  4. Sprinkle the dish with chopped parsley and minced bacon.

  5. Fill the dish with the prepared sauce.

  6. Cover the dish tightly.

  7. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 hour.

  8. Once cooled, add the hard-boiled egg pieces.

  9. Cover the pie with pastry, leaving a small opening in the center.

  10. Brush the crust with beaten egg.

  11. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until golden.

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 + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Tarragon + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together213 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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, which browns to build flavor in the sauce.
Rump steak
Adds tender, savory meat that becomes juicy during the long covered bake.
Clarified dripping
Carries heat for browning the pigeon and onion and adds rich flavor.
Onion
Browns lightly in the fat to add sweetness and savory depth to the sauce.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add firm, mild texture and body to the filling.
Pastry
Forms a crisp, golden top that seals in the filling.

The step that matters

Adding the hard-boiled eggs after the first bake. Adding the eggs once the filling has cooled keeps them from overcooking and turning rubbery, and it helps the pie hold its shape under the pastry.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, tarragon, vinegar, pepper, nutmeg, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, tarragon, vinegar, pepper, nutmeg, egg. 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.

More pigeon pie recipes

Filling 3 See all 224 →

You might also like

Green Corn PuddingGreen Corn Pudding64 recipesCornmeal mushCornmeal mush12 recipes