Name: Pigeon Pie
Ingredients: fine puff-paste; 1 veal cutlet or tender rump-steak, free from fat and bone; coarse sea salt; cayenne pepper; nutmeg or pounded mace; freshly-killed young pigeons; butter

Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pigeon Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Line a large dish with fine puff-paste.
Cover the bottom with the veal cutlet or rump-steak, seasoned with salt, cayenne, and nutmeg or mace.
Prepare enough young pigeons to fit in one layer in the dish.
Place a slice or ball of butter, seasoned with cayenne and mace, inside each pigeon.
Arrange the pigeons in the dish with their breasts facing down.

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.

Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together24,377 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,049 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Veal + nutmegtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,542 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).