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To Boil Pigeons

Pigeons boiled with bacon fat, butter, broccoli, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

To Boil Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Draw the pigeons, removing the craw carefully.

  2. Wash the pigeons in several waters and cut off the pinions.

  3. Turn the legs under the wings.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the pigeons slowly for 15 minutes until done.

  2. Dish the pigeons and pour melted butter over them.

  3. Garnish with broccoli and serve with melted butter and parsley.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Broccoli + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together653 recipes

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

  3. Broccoli + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,747 recipes

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

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pigeons
Form the main protein, which becomes tender and moist when simmered gently.
Fat bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor to the cooking liquid and the meat.
Melted butter
Adds richness and moisture, coating the cooked birds and carrying flavor.

The step that matters

Boil the pigeons slowly for 15 minutes until done. A gentle simmer keeps the meat tender and moist, while a hard boil toughens muscle fibers and can split the skin. Checking for doneness prevents undercooked or dry birds.

Swap the broccoli

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Broccolithe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, pepper. 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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