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Mock Pigeons

A stuffed veal cutlet baked with pork, eggs, breadcrumbs, and tomato gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mock Pigeons

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the rolls

  1. Lay the cutlets on a dish and spread the upper side with a mixture of the fat salt pork, egg yolks, bread crumbs, pepper, salt, onion pickle, sugar, parsley, and oyster liquor.

  2. Roll each cutlet up tightly and bind with soft string.

  3. Place the rolled cutlets in a dripping pan.

Braise

  1. Mix the butter and tomato juice into the boiling water and pour over the cutlets.

  2. Cover with another inverted pan and bake in a steady oven at 350°F (175°C) for a little over an hour, or longer if the cutlets are large.

  3. Once tender and browned, remove the strings and keep the cutlets hot.

Finish the gravy

  1. Strain, season, and thicken the gravy, then boil for one minute and serve.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  4. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Veal cutlets
Form the outer wrapper that becomes tender as it braises.
Fat salt pork
Adds fat to the filling, keeping it moist and flavourful during baking.
Egg yolks
Bind the filling and add richness to the stuffing.
Bread crumbs
Soak up juices and give the stuffing body.
Tomato juice
Adds acidity and color to the braising liquid that becomes the gravy.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the gravy.

The step that matters

Rolling and binding the cutlets. Rolling tightly and tying firmly keeps the filling inside while the cutlets cook. Loose rolls can open and let the stuffing spill into the liquid.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, egg, bread, pepper, sugar, parsley. 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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