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Pigeons Baked on Lambs’ Tails

Pigeons baked on lamb tails with forcemeat stuffing and a spiced gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lamb and chicken match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 626 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Pigeons Baked on Lambs’ Tails

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Place the lamb tails in a baking dish to melt some fat.

  3. Prepare the pigeons by boning and stuffing them with veal and chicken forcemeat.

Roast

  1. Sprinkle the pigeons with mixed spices and coarse sea salt.

  2. Lay the pigeons on the melted lamb tails and baste them several times with butter.

  3. Dust the pigeons lightly with flour.

  4. Add a few balls of forcemeat to the dish.

  5. Once browned, remove excess fat from the pan.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. For the gravy, add boiling water, port or sherry, lemon juice, and crushed capsicum to the pan.

  2. Stir constantly until it begins to boil, then pour over the pigeons and serve.

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. Lamb + chickentop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together626 recipes

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

  2. Chicken + capsicumtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Lemon + capsicumtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Sherry + capsicumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Veal + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).

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 is boned and stuffed so it stays moist and holds its shape.
Veal forcemeat
Adds a moist, savoury stuffing that enriches the pigeon meat as it cooks.
Chicken forcemeat
Adds a soft, moist stuffing that binds and cushions the pigeon meat.
Lamb tails
Melt fat into the dish, enriching the pan for basting and the gravy.
Flour
Dusted on the pigeons to help them brown and thicken the pan juices.
Port or sherry
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the gravy.

The step that matters

Stir the gravy constantly until it begins to boil. Flour and pan juices can lump or scorch on the bottom of the pan if left unstirred, leaving the gravy grainy and uneven. Constant stirring keeps the flour dispersed so it thickens smoothly as it heats.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lamb, veal, chicken, flour, sherry, capsicum):

  1. Coconutfits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Cherryfits about as well
  4. Plumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, veal, chicken, flour, sherry, capsicum. 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.

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