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Pigeon Pie

A savory pie made with beef, pigeons, bacon, gravy, and pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Pigeon Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Make gravy from sheep's feet, gravy beef, pigeon trimmings, and scraps.

  2. Cut beef into neat pieces and roll with thin strips of bacon.

  3. Prepare pigeons whole, seasoning inside with chopped bacon, pepper, salt, and minced mushroom.

  4. Rub pie dish with shallot and sprinkle parsley on the bottom.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer beef rolls and place pigeons on top.

  2. Mix gravy with marsala or white wine and pour over the pie.

  3. Cover with pastry and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Tender lean beef
Provides the main meat structure and chewy-tender bite once cooked through.
Young pigeons
Supply the rich, dark meat that forms the centrepiece of the pie.
Cooked bacon
Adds fat and salty, smoky flavour that carries into the beef rolls and pigeons.
Gravy beef
Releases gelatin and savoury flavour into the gravy, moistening the filling.
Sheep's feet
Add natural gelatin that thickens the gravy and gives it a silky body.
Marsala or white wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the gravy poured over the pie.

The step that matters

Covering and baking the pie. Gravy must be poured in before the pastry seals the dish, and the long bake must cook the pigeons and beef through while the gelatin in the gravy sets and moistens the filling.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, mushroom, white wine, shallot):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, mushroom, white wine, shallot. 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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