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Pigeon Pie

A baked pie filled with roasted pigeons, stuffing or mashed potatoes, topped with butter and pastry.

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 ↓

Pigeon Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pigeons

  1. Clean and truss the pigeons, rubbing the outside and inside with a mixture of pepper and salt.

  2. Rub the inside with butter.

  3. Fill the pigeons with stuffing or mashed potatoes.

  4. Sew up the slit.

Assemble the pie

  1. Butter the sides of a tin basin or pudding dish.

  2. Line the dish with pie paste rolled to ¼ inch thickness.

  3. Place the pigeons in the dish.

  4. Cut the butter into pieces and place the butter pieces over the pigeons.

  5. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and parsley if using.

  6. Dredge flour over the top.

  7. Add water to nearly fill the pie.

  8. Lay skewers across the top.

  9. Cover with puff pastry.

  10. Cut a slit in the middle.

  11. Decorate the edge with pastry leaves or braids.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 1 hour.

  2. Brush the top with the egg yolk mixture.

  3. Finish baking.

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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  5. Bread + wheattop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together209 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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 cooks gently inside the pastry and stays moist under the crust.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the pastry brown as it bakes.
Wheat flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a light gravy as the water and juices mix.
Puff pastry
Forms a flaky, golden crust that rises and crisps in the oven.
Egg yolk
Brushed on top, it gives the crust a glossy, deeper golden color.

The step that matters

Adding the water before covering. The water must nearly fill the dish so the pigeons stay moist and the flour can form a gravy. Too little liquid can leave the meat dry, while the pastry needs a sealed dish to steam and rise evenly.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, bread, wheat, flour, egg, milk):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Turmericfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, bread, wheat, flour, egg, 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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