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Pigeon Pie

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut fillets of beef into thin slices and season with salt, pepper, parsley, and chives.

  2. Line the bottom of a pie dish with the beef slices.

  3. Pour ½ cup of Espagnole Sauce or good Brown Stock over the beef.

  4. Prepare the pigeons by cutting them in half, removing pinion bones, and drawing sinews from the legs.

  5. Season each pigeon with salt, pepper, and chopped herbs, then place them breast side down on top of the beef.

  6. Layer sliced hard-boiled eggs between each row of pigeons.

  7. Add more fillets of beef on top and fill with Consomme.

  8. Cover and cook according to the directions for Beefsteak Pie.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + chivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Beef + chivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together304 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Swap the chive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, parsley, sauce, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, parsley, sauce, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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