Why it works: Asparagus and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 261 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Pigeon Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare the old pigeon for soup.
Flavor the soup with asparagus or young peas.
Make the soup
Boil the rice in a little water with salt until half done.
Add the partially cooked rice to the pigeon soup.
Cook the soup for an additional hour.
If desired, add raw yolks of eggs to the soup before serving.
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.
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Asparagus + ricetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together261 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Asparagus + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,338 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + eggtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,350 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Old pigeon
- Provides the main meat and savory flavor that gives the soup its body.
- Rice
- Releases starch as it cooks, slightly thickening the soup and adding body.
- Asparagus or young peas
- Adds fresh, vegetal flavor and a bright green color to the soup.
- Raw egg yolks
- Enriches the broth with fat and richness, and can lightly thicken it.
The step that matters
Boil the rice only until half done. The rice keeps cooking in the hot soup for an additional hour. Fully cooked rice would keep absorbing liquid and soften into mush, clouding the broth.
“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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