Skip to main content
Main

Pigeon Pie

A savory pie made with pigeons, rump steak, butter, egg yolks, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,594 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Pigeon Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Prepare a rich puff pastry for the pie crust.

Assemble the pie

  1. In the pie, layer the small pieces of rump steak and season with cayenne pepper and coarse sea salt.

  2. Inside each pigeon, place a piece of butter rolled in seasoning and lay them breast down.

  3. Add the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs and force meat balls if desired.

  4. Pour in the water or gravy.

Finish and bake

  1. Brush the crust with egg wash and decorate with pastry leaves.

  2. Clean the feet of the pigeons, cut them off, and place them in the center, rubbing them with butter to prevent burning.

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. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Pepper + meattop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Egg + meattop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,432 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 cooks through in the enclosed pie and becomes tender.
Rump steak
Adds savoury meat flavour and moisture that fills the pie as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavour, keeps the meat moist, and helps the surface brown.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add richness and a crumbly, creamy texture to the filling.
Egg wash
Gives the pastry crust a glossy, golden browned finish.

The step that matters

Rubbing the exposed pigeon feet with butter. Exposed bones and thin parts scorch quickly in a hot oven. A coat of butter fat shields them, slowing browning so the crust and pigeon cook evenly.

“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 pie recipes

Filling 3 See all 224 →

You might also like

Meat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipesMeatballsMeatballs37 recipesMince MeatMince Meat37 recipesMeat CakesMeat Cakes35 recipes