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To Stew Pigeons

A stew of pigeons cooked with cabbage, milk, water, broth, cream, butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Stew Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Soak the pigeons in water for 30 minutes.

  2. Boil the sliced cabbage in milk and water.

  3. Drain the cabbage.

Stew

  1. Layer some cabbage in a stew pan.

  2. Place the pigeons on top.

  3. Season with pepper and salt.

  4. Cover the pigeons with the remaining cabbage.

  5. Add broth.

  6. Stew gently until the pigeons are tender.

  7. Stir in cream, butter, and flour for thickening.

  8. Boil for a few minutes.

  9. Serve the pigeons in the center with cabbage around them.

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. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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 main meat, which becomes tender through slow stewing.
Hard white cabbage
Forms the bulk of the dish and absorbs flavour from the milk and broth.
Flour
Thickens the stew liquid as it heats, giving it body.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, rounder texture to the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for flavour and helps give the sauce a silky finish.

The step that matters

Stew gently until the pigeons are tender. Low, gentle heat lets tough connective tissue break down slowly. Vigorous boiling toughens meat and can make the liquid too reduced or uneven.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, butter, flour, 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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