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Pigeon Pie

A savory pie made with pigeons, salt, pepper, fat pork, eggs, giblets, flour, and water, baked in a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pigeon Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Clean, wash, and joint the pigeons. Wipe them dry, then season with salt and pepper.

  2. Sauté the pigeons in hot dripping that has been used to fry an onion.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a deep dish and layer in the sautéed pigeons, alternating with layers of chopped fat salt pork, hard-boiled eggs, and minced giblets.

  2. Dredge flour over the layers as you add them.

  3. Pour in 1 cup of water seasoned with salt and pepper, which was used to cook the giblets.

  4. Cover the pie with a crust, cut a slit in the middle, and bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).

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. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

  5. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Pigeons
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender and flavourful during the layered baking.
Flour
Dredged over the layers to thicken the cooking liquid into a light gravy.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add richness and a firm, creamy texture between the meat layers.
Fat salt pork
Adds fat and savoury flavour that moistens the pigeon meat as it bakes.
Giblets
Contribute deep, savoury meaty flavour and body to the filling.

The step that matters

Sautéing the pigeons in hot dripping. Searing the pigeon pieces in hot fat browns their surfaces through the Maillard reaction, building flavour that carries into the baked pie. Pieces that are crowded or not dry will steam instead of browning.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, pork, egg, flour):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, pork, egg, flour. 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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