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Stewed Pigeons

A stew of roasted pigeons simmered in a sauce of beef dripping, onion, tomato, parsley, flour, cornflour, stock, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Stewed Pigeons

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.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the beef dripping in a stewpan over medium heat.

  2. Add the sliced onion, tomatoes, and parsley; fry until the onion is lightly browned.

  3. Stir in the flour and cornflour until smoothly mixed.

  4. Gradually pour in the stock and bring the sauce to a boil.

  5. Reduce heat and let it simmer gently for 15 minutes.

  6. Season with salt, pepper, tarragon vinegar, and browning sauce.

Prepare the pigeons

  1. Roast the pigeons, then cut them up and remove the skin.

  2. Place the pigeon pieces in a clean stewpan and strain the sauce over them.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the pan and place it in a larger pan of hot water in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 hour.

  2. Serve the stew on a hot dish, garnished with kite-shaped snippets.

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. Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Tomato + tarragontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together391 recipes

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef dripping
Provides fat for frying the onion and carries flavour into the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce by swelling with liquid as it cooks.
Cornflour
Adds further thickening so the sauce becomes smooth and glossy.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and gives it savoury depth.
Pigeons
Supply the main meat, which becomes tender during the long, gentle baking.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savoury aroma when browned in the fat.

The step that matters

Simmering the sauce gently after it boils. Thickening starch needs heat to swell fully, but a hard boil can break the sauce and make it grainy or uneven. A gentle simmer keeps it smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, tomato, parsley, flour, sauce, pepper, tarragon):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, tomato, parsley, flour, sauce, pepper, tarragon. 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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