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To Stew Pigeons

A stew of pigeons stuffed with liver, breadcrumbs, and herbs, simmered in stock and finished with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Stew Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pigeons

  1. Mince the pigeons' livers and mix them with bread crumbs, egg yolks, lemon peel, thyme, and savory.

  2. Stuff the mixture into each pigeon, adding a small piece of butter inside.

Stew and finish

  1. Place the pigeons in a stewpan and cover with bouillon or stock.

  2. Stew gently for 30 minutes.

  3. Remove the pigeons and strain the sauce.

  4. Thicken the sauce with cream and beaten egg yolks, then season with pepper and salt.

  5. Heat the pigeons in the sauce for 1 minute before serving.

  6. Garnish with small pickled or stewed mushrooms around the dish.

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. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, 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 becomes tender during gentle stewing.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce and bind the stuffing into a cohesive mixture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the stuffing body and soft texture.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the sauce, softening its flavor.
Pigeon livers
Add rich, savory depth to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce with egg yolks. Egg yolks set when heated, but if the sauce boils after they are added they can curdle and turn grainy. Keep the heat low and stir constantly while thickening.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, bread, egg, lemon, butter, cream, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Sagefits about as well
  4. Thymethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, bread, egg, lemon, butter, cream, pepper. 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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