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For Filling Raised Pies

A savory filling made from pigeons, beef gravy, mushrooms, herbs, butter, flour, sherry, and optional forcemeat, used for raised pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

For Filling Raised Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pigeons

  1. Prepare 3 pigeons by baking or roasting them.

Make the gravy base

  1. In a stewpan, combine 1 quart of beef gravy with 1 ounce of butter and ½ ounce of flour, or thicken with brown roux.

  2. Simmer over low heat.

  3. Gradually add the remaining gravy until smooth.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the pigeons and simmer until cooked through.

  2. Optionally, add a little forcemeat and 1-2 glasses of sherry.

  3. Color the mixture with gravy coloring to achieve a nice brown.

  4. Fill your pie with the mixture.

  5. If serving without a cover, garnish with parsley and lemon slices.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

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

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 as it simmers in the gravy.
Beef gravy
Forms the liquid base of the filling and carries the flavor throughout.
Butter
Adds richness and helps build the smooth base with the flour.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so the filling becomes smooth and holds together.
Sherry
Adds aroma and a subtle sweetness and acidity to the gravy.

The step that matters

Gradually add the remaining gravy until smooth. Adding liquid slowly while stirring lets the flour disperse evenly, so lumps do not form and the gravy thickens smoothly.

“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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