Name: Boned Squabs and Pigeons
Ingredients: squabs or pigeons; well-seasoned sausage meat or any good force-meat; salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Meat and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,777 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Boned Squabs and Pigeons

Ingredients

squabs or pigeons
well-seasoned sausage meat or any good force-meat
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Pluck the squabs, then cut off the head, wings, and legs near the body.
Cut through the skin down the middle of the back and carefully cut the flesh away from the carcass until reaching the joints of the wings and legs.
Unjoint the wings and legs, then continue cutting until you reach the ridge of the breastbone, being careful not to tear the skin.
Remove the entire flesh from the carcass and lay it skin side down on the table.
Take out the wing and leg bones from the inside and replace the carcass with well-seasoned sausage meat or force-meat.
Fold the skin over the force-meat and secure it with a few stitches to shape the bird.
Roast or bake the boned squabs and serve with aspic jelly or a salad, removing the string used to confine the force-meat.

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.

Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,777 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Squab + peppertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together35 recipes

Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).
Squab + meattop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).