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Pigeon Pie

A savory pie of veal, pigeon, butter, eggs, and spices, baked in puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Pigeon Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Make a fine puff pastry.

  2. Lay a border around a large dish.

  3. Cover the bottom with a veal cutlet or tender rump steak.

  4. Season the cutlet with salt, cayenne, and nutmeg or mace.

  5. Prepare enough freshly killed young pigeons for one layer in the dish.

Fill the pie

  1. Place a slice of butter seasoned with cayenne and mace inside each pigeon.

  2. Lay the pigeons breast down in the dish.

  3. Add the yolks of boiled eggs between and over the pigeons.

  4. Dot the pigeons with plenty of butter.

  5. Season the whole with salt and spices.

  6. Pour in cold water or veal broth for the gravy.

Cover and bake

  1. Roll out the pastry cover to ¾ inch thick.

  2. Secure it around the edge.

  3. Ornament it.

  4. Bake the pie for an hour or more.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Nutmeg + mushroomtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,988 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,446 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Puff pastry
Forms a flaky crust that encloses the filling and holds the gravy.
Veal cutlet or tender rump steak
Adds meaty richness and savory flavor to the base layer.
Fresh young pigeons
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender and juicy during slow baking.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, carrying the seasoning into the meat.
Boiled eggs (3 or more)
Yolks add richness and a creamy texture to the filling.
Veal broth or cold water
Makes the gravy that keeps the filling moist during baking.

The step that matters

Bake the pie for an hour or more. Long baking is needed so the pigeons and cutlet become tender while the pastry sets and browns. Pulling it early leaves the meat tough and the crust underdone.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, butter, egg, mushroom):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, butter, egg, mushroom. 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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