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To Broil Pigeons

Broiled pigeons seasoned with parsley, pepper, salt, mace, and bread crumbs, served with mushroom sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Broil Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the pigeons down the back.

  2. Flatten them by beating with a rolling pin.

  3. Insert two skewers across each bird to keep them flat.

Coat and broil

  1. Dip the pigeons in egg.

  2. Season with parsley, pepper, salt, mace, and bread crumbs.

  3. Broil until they are a fine brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with mushroom sauce.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Bread + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Parsley + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

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

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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 cooked and browned as the main dish.
Egg
Acts as a binder so the seasoning and bread crumbs adhere to the birds.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp coating that browns under the broiler.

The step that matters

Broil until they are a fine brown. Pigeon meat is lean and can dry out under direct heat, so watch closely. Browning comes from the Maillard reaction at the surface, so the birds need enough time for color without overcooking the interior.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, parsley, pepper, bread, mushroom, sauce):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parsley, pepper, bread, mushroom, sauce. 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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