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To Roast Pigeons

Roasted pigeons stuffed and trussed, served with a gravy made from drippings, wine, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

To Roast Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove pin feathers or skin from the pigeons and examine the insides carefully.

  2. Soak the pigeons in water for 30 minutes to remove blood.

  3. Boil the pigeons in salted water for 30 minutes, skimming off any scum.

Stuff and roast

  1. Remove the pigeons, fill them with stuffing, sew them up, and truss tightly.

  2. Roast the pigeons for 1 hour, basting with butter and salt pork or larding them.

Make the gravy

  1. For the gravy, combine the drippings, 1 cup of the boiling liquid, butter, and flour in a pan.

  2. Add ½ glass of red wine and ½ teaspoon of cloves, then bring to a boil.

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. Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,417 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Red wine + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together849 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Butter + red winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,599 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
The main protein, which becomes tender and juicy through boiling and then roasting.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the skin brown during basting.
Salt pork or lard
Adds fat that keeps the birds moist and flavourful while they roast.
Flour
Thickens the drippings into a smooth, stable gravy.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the gravy.

The step that matters

Boil the pigeons before roasting. Boiling first softens the tough muscle and skims away scum, so the birds roast more evenly and tenderly. Skipping or shortening it can leave the meat chewy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, pork, flour, red wine):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, pork, flour, red wine. 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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