Skip to main content
Main

To Stew Pigeons

A stew of pigeons cooked with cabbage, milk, water, broth, cream, butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Stew Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the pigeons in water for 30 minutes.

  2. Slice the cabbage and boil it in milk and water, then drain.

Stew

  1. Place some cabbage at the bottom of a stew‑pan.

  2. Season the pigeons with pepper and salt, then place them on the cabbage.

  3. Cover the pigeons with the remaining cabbage and add broth.

  4. Stew gently until the pigeons are tender.

  5. Add cream, butter, and flour for thickening, and boil for a few minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the pigeons in the center with cabbage around them.

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. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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 becomes tender through slow, gentle stewing.
Cabbage
Forms a bed and filling that absorbs flavour and softens during cooking.
Milk
Gently cooks the cabbage, adding softness and mild sweetness to the vegetables.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the finished sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the sauce, rounding out its flavour.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a stable sauce when heated.

The step that matters

Stew gently until the pigeons are tender. High heat toughens muscle proteins and can make the meat dry. A gentle, low simmer lets collagen break down slowly, leaving the pigeons tender and the broth flavourful.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, pepper, cream, butter, flour. 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.

More pigeon stew recipes

with Cabbage 3with Green Peas 3with Peas 3 See all 101 →

You might also like

Red CabbageRed Cabbage65 recipesStewed CabbageStewed Cabbage58 recipesBaked CabbageBaked Cabbage51 recipesCabbage DressingCabbage Dressing19 recipes