Name: To Boil Pigeons
Ingredients: Pigeons; coarse sea salt; butter; broccoli; parsley

Why it works: Broccoli and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 653 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Boil Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Remove the craw from the pigeons and wash them thoroughly.
Cut off the pinions and tuck the legs under the wings.
Boil the pigeons slowly for 15 minutes.
Serve with melted butter poured over them and garnish with broccoli.
Add parsley on the side.

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.

Broccoli + parsleytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together653 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Butter + broccolitop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,451 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).