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A Fricassee of Pioeons

A fricassee of pigeons cooked with wine, water, herbs, and finished with eggs and bacon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

A Fricassee of Pioeons

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. In a stewpan, combine the pigeons, claret, and water.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, mace, onion, sweet herbs, and butter mixed with flour.

  3. Cover and let stew until there is enough sauce.

  4. Remove the onion and sweet herbs.

Finish the sauce

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs.

  2. Grate in the nutmeg.

  3. Push the meat to one side of the pan. Push the gravy to the other side of the pan.

  4. Stir in the eggs, stirring constantly to prevent curdling. Once the sauce is thick, mix everything together.

Serve

  1. Transfer the meat to a dish. Pour the sauce over it.

  2. Top with toasted bacon and fried oysters. Garnish with lemon.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Pigeons
Provide the meat that is braised until tender in the wine and water.
Eggs yolks
Thicken the sauce gently and give it a rich, smooth body when stirred in.
Butter mixed with flour
Forms a roux that thickens the stewing liquid into a sauce.
Claret
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the braising liquid and sauce.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the eggs into the sauce. Egg yolks scramble if they get too hot or are added without constant stirring. Stirring steadily while the sauce is warm lets the yolks thicken it smoothly instead of curdling.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (red wine, pepper, onion, butter, flour, egg, nutmeg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against red wine, pepper, onion, butter, flour, egg, nutmeg. 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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