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Pigeon Pie

A savory pie with steak, pigeon halves, ham, egg yolks, stock, and puff pastry, topped with a crust and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Pigeon Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the steak into pieces about 2 inches square and line the bottom of a pie dish with it, seasoning well with pepper and salt.

  2. Clean the pigeons, cut them in half, rub them with pepper and salt inside and out, and place ½ oz. of butter in each half.

  3. Lay the pigeon halves on the steak and place a piece of ham on each.

  4. Add the yolks of 4 eggs and fill the dish halfway with stock.

Top and bake

  1. Place a border of puff pastry around the edge of the dish, cover it, and decorate as desired.

  2. Clean three pigeon feet and place them in a hole made in the crust at the top to indicate the type of pie.

  3. Glaze the crust by brushing it with egg yolk and bake in a well-heated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 1 hour.

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. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak
Gives the filling meaty body and savory flavor as it cooks in the stock.
Pigeons
Provide the main meat, with rich flavor that the seasoning and butter carry through the pie.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the pigeon meat as it cooks.
Egg yolks
Enrich the filling and help the crust brush-glaze brown in the oven.
Puff pastry
Forms a flaky, crisp crust that seals the filling inside the dish.

The step that matters

Glaze the crust with egg yolk. Egg yolk brushed on pastry promotes even browning and a glossy finish. Brushing unevenly or too thickly can leave pale patches or pooled, greasy spots.

“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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