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Pigeon Pie

A savory pie filled with steak, pigeons, ham, egg yolks, and stock, topped with a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Pigeon Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dish

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Line the bottom of a pie dish with the steak pieces and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Rub the pigeons inside and out with salt and pepper, then place a lump of butter inside each.

Assemble and bake

  1. Lay the pigeons on top of the steak and add a slice of ham on each bird.

  2. Add the yolks of the eggs and fill the dish halfway with stock.

  3. Cover with the pie crust and bake until cooked through.

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. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + hamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 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

Rump steak
Provides savory, beefy flavor and body to the filling as it cooks slowly in the dish.
Pigeons
Supply the main meat and rich, gamey flavor of the pie.
Egg yolks
Enrich the filling and help thicken it as it bakes.
Stock
Adds moisture and liquid so the meat cooks gently and the filling stays juicy.
Butter
Adds fat and moisture inside each pigeon, enriching the meat as it cooks.
Ham
Adds salty, savory flavor to the pigeons as they cook.

The step that matters

Cover with the pie crust and bake until cooked through. Pigeon and steak need enough heat over time to become tender and safe to eat. The covered crust traps steam and heat, so the meat cooks through and the filling sets.

“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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