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Pigeons Compote

Young pigeons stuffed with forcemeat, fried, then stewed in brown gravy and served with forcemeat balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Pigeons Compote

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pigeons

  1. Skewer the pigeons as for boiling.

  2. Stuff the craws with forcemeat.

  3. Lard the breasts.

  4. Fry the pigeons until brown.

Stew and finish

  1. Place the pigeons in strong brown gravy.

  2. Stew for 45 minutes.

  3. Thicken the gravy with a lump of butter rolled in flour.

  4. Serve with strained gravy and forcemeat balls around.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 during slow stewing in gravy.
Forcemeat
Adds a rich, savoury filling that moistens the birds from within as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and, kneaded with flour, thickens the gravy smoothly.
Flour
Combined with butter to form a roux-like paste that thickens the gravy.
Strong brown gravy
Braising liquid that keeps the pigeons moist and forms the sauce.

The step that matters

Frying the pigeons until brown. Browning builds deep, savoury flavour through the Maillard reaction. Pale birds added to the gravy give a flatter, less rich sauce.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, pepper, parsley, thyme, shallot, lemon):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pepper, parsley, thyme, shallot, lemon. 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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