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Pigeons with Peas

A stew of pigeons, ham or bacon, green peas, and mint, finished with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Peas and mint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Pigeons with Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Truss the pigeons with their feet inwards.

Stew

  1. In a stew pan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter.

  2. Add the pigeons, slices of ham or bacon, and a little water.

  3. Stew gently until the pigeons are browned.

  4. Add the green peas, mint, and another piece of butter.

  5. Pour in warm water or milk.

  6. Stew slowly until done.

Serve

  1. Stir in 2 tablespoons of butter before serving.

  2. Serve the pigeons 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.

  1. Peas + minttop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Peas + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,309 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  4. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Butter + peastop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,887 recipes

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

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 stewing.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps the pigeons brown at the start.
Ham or bacon
Adds savory, salty flavor and fat to the stew.
Green peas
Add sweetness and body to the stewing liquid.
Mint
Adds a fresh, aromatic herb flavor to the peas.
Warm water or milk
Provides moisture so the stew cooks gently without drying out.

The step that matters

Stew slowly until done. Gentle, low heat lets the tough muscle fibres of the pigeons break down slowly, keeping the meat tender and the liquid from reducing too fast or scorching.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, ham, peas, milk):

  1. Mintthe original
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Parsleyfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ham, peas, milk. 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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