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Pigeon Pie

A savory pie made with pigeons, rump steak, butter, egg yolks, and gravy, baked in a puff pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,594 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Pigeon Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

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

  2. Prepare a rich puff pastry for the pie crust.

Assemble the pie

  1. In the pie, layer the steak pieces and season with cayenne pepper and salt.

  2. Place a piece of butter inside each pigeon, rolled in seasoning, and lay them breast down.

  3. Add the yolks of the hard boiled eggs and force meat balls if desired.

  4. Pour in the water or gravy.

Finish and bake

  1. Wash the crust with beaten egg.

  2. Decorate with pastry leaves and clean pigeon feet in the center, rubbing them with butter to prevent burning.

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 + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Pepper + meattop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Egg + meattop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,432 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

Pigeons
Provide the main meat, which cooks down tender inside the pastry.
Rump steak
Adds meaty flavour and body to the filling as it cooks in the pie.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the birds and helps the crust brown.
Hard boiled egg yolks
Add a rich, crumbly texture and savoury depth to the filling.
Water or gravy
Provides moisture so the filling stays juicy during baking.

The step that matters

Rubbing the pigeon feet with butter. The exposed feet are thin and will scorch in the hot oven. Rubbing them with butter adds fat that slows browning and protects them from burning.

“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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