Why it works: Milk and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. 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
Stew the cleaned and quartered pigeons in boiling water until nearly tender, removing any scum.
Once cooked, remove the pigeons and reserve about 1 pint of the cooking liquid.
Thicken the reserved liquid with a little white flour mixed with milk or water, then bring the thickened liquid to a boil and set it aside.
Assemble and bake
Line a baking pan with light cream paste, covering the sides or the bottom as preferred.
Layer half of the pigeons in the pan, adding small bits of paste and the potato pieces.
Add the remaining pigeons and the thickened liquid, ensuring the pie is more than half covered with gravy.
Roll out the top crust to ½ inch thick, pinch the edges together, and cut a cross in the center.
Prick the top crust with a fork and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the crust is golden.
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.
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Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + potatotop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,481 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 in liquid.
- White flour
- Thickens the reserved cooking liquid into a gravy that binds the filling.
- Light cream paste
- Forms the pastry crust that lines the pan and covers the pie.
- Potatoes
- Add starch and body to the filling, helping it hold together as it bakes.
The step that matters
Thicken the gravy before assembling. Flour must be mixed smoothly and brought to a boil so its starch swells and thickens the liquid. Unthickened or lumpy gravy would run out when the pie is cut and leave the filling watery.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, cream):
- Arrowrootfits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Leekfits about as well
- Spinachfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, cream. 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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