Name: Stewed or Potted Pigeons
Ingredients: 6 pigeons; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 tablespoon dry flour; Salt and pepper to taste; 1 pint young green peas

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Stewed or Potted Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pigeons

Pluck the pigeons.
Singe the pigeons.
Wipe the pigeons with a wet towel.
Remove the heads and feet.
Carefully draw the pigeons without breaking the entrails.
Save the hearts, livers, and gizzards.

Brown and stew

In a saucepan, heat the butter until smoking hot.
Add the pigeons to the saucepan and brown them.
Dust the browned pigeons with flour.
Stir until the flour is brown.
Cover the pigeons with boiling water.
Season with salt and pepper.
Simmer gently until tender.

Add the peas and serve

Shell enough young green peas to fill a pint measure.
Wash the pods if necessary.
Do not wash the shelled peas.
When the pigeons are tender, add the peas.
Cook until the peas are just tender.
Serve the pigeons on a deep platter with the peas underneath.

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.

Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + peastop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,331 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + peastop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,887 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Butter and flour 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, which becomes tender through slow simmering in liquid.
Butter: Fat that browns the pigeons and carries flavour into the dish.
Dry flour: Browns in the fat and thickens the cooking liquid into a light gravy.
Young green peas: Add sweetness and a fresh, tender texture that contrasts with the rich meat.

The step that matters

Stir until the flour is brown. Flour browned in hot fat develops a nutty, toasted flavour and colour. If it is pulled too early it tastes raw and thickens poorly, and if it burns it turns bitter.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, pepper):

Almondfits better
Black-eyed peafits better
Chestnutfits better
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, 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.

Green Peas229 recipes

Green Peas Soup35 recipes

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Stewed or Potted Pigeons