Name: To Stew Pigeons
Ingredients: pigeons; bread; butter; pepper; oswego (or cornstarch); gravy or hot water

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Stew Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Pick and wash the pigeons, trussing them as you would for boiling.
Stuff each pigeon with a piece of bread, butter, and some pepper.
Dust the pigeons with oswego and brown them in a covered stewpan with a good amount of butter.
Add a little oswego for thickening and pour in some gravy or hot water.
Season the pigeons well and let them stew slowly for 20 to 30 minutes.
Serve the pigeons on pieces of toasted bread.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

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