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Pigeon Pie

A savory pie filled with pigeon halves, forcemeat of breadcrumbs and egg yolks, topped with pastry and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pigeon Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Make the pastry and line a deep pie dish with it thinly.

  2. Wash the cleaned pigeons, wipe them dry, and cut them in half.

  3. Prepare a forcemeat with breadcrumbs, yolks of hard-boiled eggs, a little butter, and seasoning.

Assemble

  1. Layer the pigeon halves in the dish, dusting with pepper and salt.

  2. Fill the layers with the forcemeat.

  3. Cut ¼ cup of butter into small pieces and add some of the egg whites on top.

  4. Cover with pastry and make a hole in the center.

  5. Pour in some stock and place three scalded pigeon feet in the hole.

  6. Decorate the top with pastry designs and brush with beaten egg.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 2.5 hours.

  2. Once cooled, turn out of the dish and serve with a frill around it.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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 becomes tender during the long slow bake.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the filling and forcemeat from drying out.
Hard boiled eggs
Yolks bind the forcemeat into a smooth, sliceable filling.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb juices and give the forcemeat body and a soft texture.
Fresh raw egg
Beaten egg glaze promotes browning and a glossy pastry top.

The step that matters

Adding stock through the center hole. Stock poured in after the pastry is sealed must be added in measured amounts. Too much can soak the forcemeat and make the pastry soggy, while too little leaves the filling dry after the long bake.

“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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