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Stewed Pigeons

A stew of pigeons cooked with onion, tomato, parsley, and a sauce of flour, cornflour, stock, and tarragon vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,563 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Stewed Pigeons

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the beef dripping in a stewpan over medium heat.

  2. Add the sliced onion, tomatoes, and parsley.

  3. Fry until the onion is lightly browned.

  4. Stir in the flour and cornflour until smoothly mixed.

  5. Gradually pour in the stock.

  6. Bring the sauce to a boil.

  7. Reduce heat.

  8. Let it simmer gently for 15 minutes.

  9. Season with salt, pepper, tarragon vinegar, and browning to achieve a rich color.

Prepare the pigeons

  1. Roast the pigeons.

  2. Cut them up and remove the skin.

  3. Place the pigeon pieces in a clean stewpan.

  4. Strain the sauce over them.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the pan.

  2. Place it in a larger pan of hot water in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1 hour.

  3. Serve the stew on a hot dish, garnished with kite-shaped sippets.

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 + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Tomato + tarragontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together391 recipes

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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

Beef dripping
Provides fat for frying the onion and building flavour in the base.
Onion
Softens and browns in the fat, adding sweetness and savoury depth to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth sauce with cornflour.
Cornflour
Adds thickening power so the sauce becomes smooth and glossy.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that balance the richness of the sauce.
Pigeons
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender during the long gentle oven cooking.

The step that matters

Let it simmer gently for 15 minutes. Boiling vigorously after the flour is added can make the sauce lumpy and break down its thickening, so keep it at a gentle simmer.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, tomato, parsley, flour, pepper, tarragon, vinegar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, tomato, parsley, flour, pepper, tarragon, vinegar. 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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