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Stewed Pigeons

A stew of pigeons filled with bread crumbs, milk, egg yolk, herbs, and mushrooms, cooked in stock and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Stewed Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in milk.

  2. Mix soaked bread crumbs with egg yolk, pepper, salt, parsley, shallot, and mushrooms.

  3. Stuff the pigeons with the mixture.

Stew and serve

  1. In a stewpan, melt butter or dripping and fry the pigeons with bacon for a few minutes.

  2. Add gravy or stock and white wine, cover, and stew gently until done.

  3. Strain the gravy and serve.

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 + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Soaked in milk, they bind the stuffing and keep it moist.
Egg yolk
Binds the stuffing so it holds together during cooking.
Butter or dripping
Fat for frying the pigeons, adding richness and browning the surface.
Gravy or stock
Liquid that gently cooks the pigeons and forms the sauce.
White wine
Adds acidity and brightness to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Stew gently until done. Gentle, covered simmering keeps the meat tender and moist; vigorous boiling toughens muscle fibres and can dry the birds out before they are cooked through.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, egg, pepper, parsley, mushroom, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, egg, pepper, parsley, mushroom, butter. 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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