Skip to main content
Main

Forcemeat, for Pigeon Pies

A forcemeat mixture of pigeon livers, herbs, and spices used as filling for pigeon pies.

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

Why it works: Parsley and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,979 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Forcemeat, for Pigeon Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Make the forcemeat

  1. Finely rub the livers of the pigeons.

  2. Add chopped parsley, marjoram, shallot, butter, and bread crumbs or flour, then season with cayenne, mace, and salt.

  3. Mix into a stiff paste with the yolks of eggs.

Stuff and shape

  1. Stuff some of the mixture inside each pigeon.

  2. For balls, dust a board with flour, roll out the mixture, and shape into balls the size of a yolk.

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 + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  4. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Marjoram + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together287 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Livers of pigeons
Provide the rich, savoury body and flavour that forms the base of the forcemeat.
Yolks of eggs
Bind the mixture into a stiff paste that holds its shape.
Bread crumbs or flour
Absorb moisture and give the forcemeat body and a firmer texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender texture.

The step that matters

Mix into a stiff paste with the yolks of eggs. Egg yolk binds the mixture, but adding too much or too quickly can make it loose. Enough bread crumbs or flour must absorb the moisture so the paste holds its shape when stuffed or rolled.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, parsley, marjoram, shallot, butter, bread, 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes