Name: Pigeon Pie
Ingredients: pigeons, cut into 4 pieces; butter; egg; pork or bacon

Why it works: Butter and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,933 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Pigeon Pie

Ingredients

pigeons, cut into 4 pieces
butter
egg
pork or bacon

Directions

Do not stuff the pigeons; cut them into 4 pieces.
Parboil the pieces and layer them with egg and pork or bacon.
Use plenty of butter to make the gravy rich.
Bake the pie as you would a quail pie.

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.

Butter + porktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,933 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Egg + porktop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,387 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).