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Compote of Pigeons a LA Macedoine

A stew of pigeons simmered with stock, spices, and tomato sauce, served over mashed potatoes and garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Compote of Pigeons a LA Macedoine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pigeons

  1. Split the pigeons and trim them neatly, removing the feet and breastbone.

Make the stew

  1. In a hot stewpan, melt the butter and fry the chopped onion until lightly browned.

  2. Add the flour and cook until slightly browned, then stir in the stock, mace, cloves, salt, and pepper.

  3. Bring to a boil, then add the pigeons and simmer gently for at least 1 hour until tender.

Plate and serve

  1. On a serving dish, create a circle of mashed potatoes and arrange the pigeons around it.

  2. Pour the hot tomato sauce around the pigeons.

  3. Blanch, dry, and finely chop the parsley, then sprinkle it over the pigeons.

  4. Optionally, fill the center of the dish with cooked mushrooms or a macedoine of vegetables.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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

Pigeons
Provide the meat, which becomes tender through long gentle simmering in the stock.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour when melted and used to brown the onion.
Flour
Browned with the butter and onion, then stirred into the stock to thicken the sauce.
Stock
Forms the cooking liquid that gives the stew its body and savoury flavour.
Mashed potatoes
Form a base ring on the serving dish that holds the pigeons in place.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and colour to the sauce poured around the pigeons.

The step that matters

Simmering the pigeons. Simmering gently rather than boiling keeps the meat tender and prevents it from toughening and falling apart. Cooking for at least an hour lets the connective tissue break down fully.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, clove, pepper, potato, tomato, sauce, flour):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, clove, pepper, potato, tomato, sauce, flour. 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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