Why it works: Beef and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 31% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Pigeon Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Make a beef soup.
An hour before serving, add a pigeon.
Boil slowly with assorted vegetables.
Finish and season
Strain the soup.
Stir in the beaten egg yolk.
Add salt to taste.
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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Beef + eggtop 31% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef
- Builds the savory flavor and body of the soup broth.
- Pigeon
- Adds meaty flavor and richness to the broth as it simmers.
- Assorted vegetables
- Contribute sweetness, aroma and extra flavor to the broth as it boils.
- Egg yolk
- Enriches the soup's texture and gives it a smoother, slightly thicker body.
The step that matters
Stirring in the beaten egg yolk. Egg yolk thickens when heated gently. If the soup is at a hard boil or the yolk is added too quickly, it can scramble into small curds instead of blending smoothly, so stir steadily while adding it.
“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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