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Pigeon Pie

A savory pie filled with pigeon, onions, carrots, celery, and broth, baked in a double crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Pigeon Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a pan, melt the butter and sauté the onion, carrot, and celery until soft.

  3. Add the pigeon, season with salt and pepper, and brown on all sides.

  4. Pour in the chicken broth and simmer for 20 minutes.

Assemble and bake

  1. Transfer the mixture to the pie crust, cover with another crust, and seal the edges.

  2. Cut slits in the top crust for steam to escape.

  3. Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden brown.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pigeon
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and flavorful as it simmers in the broth.
Pie crust
Encloses the filling and gives the pie its structure and golden, browned exterior.
Onion, carrot, and celery
Build a soft aromatic base that adds sweetness and savory depth to the filling.
Chicken broth
Provides liquid that simmers the pigeon and carries flavor through the filling.
Butter
Adds fat for sautéing the vegetables, carrying flavor and aiding browning.

The step that matters

Browning the pigeon on all sides. Browning triggers the Maillard reaction, which builds deep savory flavor. Skipping or rushing it leaves the filling tasting flat and pale.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, celery, chicken, pepper, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, celery, chicken, pepper, butter. 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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