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Pigeon Pie

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pigeon Pie

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pick and clean the birds like chickens.

  2. Make a force meat by mixing cold veal, grated ham, nutmeg, mace, and a small amount of cloves.

  3. Season the inside of the birds with pepper and salt, then fill them with the force meat.

  4. Rub the outside of the birds with pepper and salt, and tie the legs with thread.

  5. Place the birds in a stew-pan with a piece of butter on each and a little flour.

  6. Add a little water to the bottom of the stew-pan to prevent burning and cover it tightly.

  7. Cook until the birds are tender, then remove them and cut off the threads.

  8. If the gravy is too thin, add butter rolled in flour, let it boil, and pour it over the birds before serving.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, nutmeg, clove, pepper, butter, flour):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, nutmeg, clove, pepper, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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