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Roast Pigeons

Roasted pigeons served with a gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Roast Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and roast

  1. Clean the pigeons thoroughly.

  2. Season the pigeons with salt and pepper.

  3. Roast or broil the pigeons for 20 to 30 minutes until cooked through.

Make the gravy

  1. Use the giblets.

  2. Season the giblets with salt and pepper.

  3. Stir in flour and butter.

Serve

  1. Serve the pigeons with the gravy.

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 + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 browns and firms as it roasts.
Flour
Thickens the drippings into a smooth gravy.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the gravy taste full and savoury.

The step that matters

Roast until cooked through. Pigeon is small and lean, so it can dry out quickly if overcooked, while undercooked poultry is unsafe to eat. Checking doneness within the 20 to 30 minute window protects both texture and safety.

“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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