Name: Pigeons Stuffed with Forcemeat
Ingredients: pigeons; butter; veal; bacon; mace; allspice; Cayenne; bread crumbs

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Pigeons Stuffed with Forcemeat

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Bone the pigeons and shape them into an oval form.
Stuff with a fine forcemeat made from veal and bacon.
Add mace, allspice, and a little Cayenne for flavor before baking.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C).
Baste gently with butter and sprinkle with bread crumbs until half done.
Brown and serve with fried crumbs around.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,189 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Veal + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,056 recipes

Shared aroma: cis-3-hexenol (green, grassy).
Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,761 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Allspice + breadtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together679 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).