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Mock Pigeons

Mock Pigeons are veal rolls stuffed with forcemeat, baked in stock, served with a brown flour gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and ketchup are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,435 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Mock Pigeons

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the rolls

  1. Remove the bones from the veal slices and flatten them.

  2. Spread the forcemeat on the veal, roll it up, and bind into oblong rolls.

Bake

  1. Place the rolls in a deep dish and pour the stock or rich gravy over them.

  2. Cover with another dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 2 hours, basting well with the gravy.

  3. Remove the cover towards the end to allow them to brown nicely.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Take out the gravy, thicken it with brown flour, and season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and ketchup.

  2. Boil the gravy and pour part over the mock pigeons, serving the rest in a gravy tureen.

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. Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Pepper + ketchuptop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,207 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Veal + ketchuptop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together527 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the outer wrapping that holds the forcemeat and cooks into tender meat.
Forcemeat
Fills the rolls, adding moisture and a rich, savoury body as it cooks.
Stock
Provides liquid for basting and the base of the gravy, keeping the meat moist.
Brown flour
Thickens the cooking gravy so it coats the rolls and can be served.
Ketchup
Adds sweetness, acidity and depth of flavour to the finished gravy.

The step that matters

Remove the cover towards the end of baking. Covering the rolls keeps them moist during the long bake, but uncovering near the end lets surface moisture evaporate so the exterior can brown through the Maillard reaction.

“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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