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Pigeons— Stewed

A stew of pigeons filled with bread, bacon, herbs, eggs, and beef gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Pigeons— Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Mix the grated bread, chopped bacon, thyme, parsley, pepper, and raw eggs.

  2. Stuff the mixture into the craws of the pigeons.

Brown and stew

  1. Lard the breasts of the pigeons and fry them until brown.

  2. Place the pigeons in a stewpan with beef gravy and stew for 1 hour.

Finish and serve

  1. Thicken the gravy with butter rolled in flour.

  2. Serve the pigeons on a platter and strain the gravy over them.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Raw eggs
Bind the stuffing so it holds together during cooking.
Fat bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour to the stuffing and moisture to the birds.
Grated bread
Absorbs moisture and gives the stuffing body.
Flour
Thickens the gravy when cooked with butter.
Butter
Enriches the gravy and carries the flour to thicken it smoothly.
Beef gravy
Provides the liquid in which the pigeons stew, adding moisture and savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Thicken the gravy with butter rolled in flour. Flour must be cooked in the fat and liquid to swell its starch and thicken the gravy. Adding it raw or in clumps leaves lumps and a floury taste.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, parsley, pepper, egg, butter, flour, beef):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Thymethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, parsley, pepper, egg, butter, flour, beef. 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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