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To Stew Pigeons

A stew of pigeons cooked with cabbage, milk, broth, and thickened with cream, butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Stew Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Chop, draw, and wash the pigeons.

  2. Soak the pigeons in water for 30 minutes.

  3. Slice the cabbage.

  4. Boil the cabbage in milk and water.

  5. Drain the cabbage and set aside.

Stew

  1. Layer boiled cabbage at the bottom of a stew pan.

  2. Season the pigeons with pepper and salt.

  3. Place the seasoned pigeons on the cabbage.

  4. Cover the pigeons with the remaining cabbage.

  5. Add broth.

  6. Stew gently until the pigeons are tender.

  7. Stir in cream, butter, and flour to thicken.

  8. Boil for a few minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the pigeons in the center with cabbage arranged around them.

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. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 through slow stewing.
Hard white cabbage
Forms a bed under and around the birds, adding body and mild sweetness as it softens.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smoother, more cohesive sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, silkier texture to the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for flavour and a glossy finish to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir in cream, butter, and flour to thicken. Flour needs to be cooked in the hot liquid long enough to hydrate and swell its starch; adding it cold or unevenly leads to lumps. Keep the mixture simmering after adding dairy so it thickens without curdling or boiling too hard.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, butter, flour, pepper. 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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