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Squabs En Casserole

A casserole of squabs braised in butter, bacon fat, ham, stock, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Squabs En Casserole

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the squabs

  1. Clean and truss the squabs.

Brown and build the sauce

  1. Heat the butter, bacon fat, and ham in a frying pan until hot.

  2. Brown the squabs quickly, then remove them to a casserole.

  3. Add flour to the fat in the pan and blend well.

  4. Stir in the salt, pepper, stock or water, parsley, onion, and celery.

  5. Cook for a few minutes.

  6. Pour the mixture over the squabs.

Bake and finish

  1. Cover the casserole and bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 2 to 4 hours, depending on tenderness.

  2. Remove the parsley and celery.

  3. Add the sliced pimolas.

  4. Simmer on the stovetop for a few minutes 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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Squabs
Provide the meat that becomes tender during the long, slow braise.
Butter
Adds richness and helps brown the squabs in the frying pan.
Bacon fat
Carries flavour and browns the birds before they go into the casserole.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a light sauce when blended with the fat.
Stock or water
Forms the moist cooking liquid that tenderises the squabs during baking.
Lean raw ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the fat used for browning.

The step that matters

Brown the squabs quickly. Quick searing in hot fat builds browned, roasted flavour on the surface. Overlong browning dries the skin and can toughen the meat before the slow braise begins.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (squab, butter, ham, flour, pepper, parsley, celery):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against squab, butter, ham, flour, pepper, parsley, celery. 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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