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Compote of Pigeons with Truffles

A savory compote of pigeons, truffles, and bacon, simmered in sherry and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Compote of Pigeons with Truffles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pigeons

  1. Draw the legs of the pigeons and singe them.

  2. Fill each pigeon with force‑meat and a small raw truffle.

  3. Wrap the pigeons in bacon and place them in the stewpan.

Make the stock

  1. In a stewpan, combine the necks, gizzards, ham, onions, mace, parsley, bay leaves, sherry, and stock.

  2. Cook gently over low heat for 1 hour.

  3. Strain the liquid and skim off the fat.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Melt butter in a stewpan.

  2. Add enough flour to thicken the butter.

  3. Stir for a few minutes.

  4. Gradually add the strained liquid while stirring.

  5. Let the sauce boil for a few minutes.

  6. Add sliced truffles to the sauce.

  7. Remove the pigeons.

  8. Let them dry on a cloth.

  9. Place the pigeons on a dish.

  10. Pour the sauce over the pigeons.

  11. Garnish with truffles, fat livers, and force‑meat balls.

  12. Squeeze half a lemon over the dish.

  13. Season with pepper and salt.

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

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

  2. Truffle + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Truffle + hamtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together516 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Thickens the melted butter into a roux that gives the sauce body.
Butter
Carries flavour and enriches the sauce, helping it coat the pigeons.
Sherry
Adds acidity and depth to the braising liquid, rounding out the stock.
Bacon
Wraps the pigeons, adding fat and savoury flavour as they cook.
Small raw truffles
Contribute a strong earthy aroma to the stuffing and the sauce.

The step that matters

Thickening the butter with flour. Flour must be cooked in the melted butter for a few minutes before the liquid is added. This cooks out raw starch taste and lets the flour thicken evenly, so the sauce does not turn lumpy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (truffle, ham, onion, parsley, sherry, butter, flour):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against truffle, ham, onion, parsley, sherry, butter, flour. 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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