Skip to main content
Main

Pigeons Stewed with Cabbage

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Pigeons Stewed with Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Cut the cabbage and drain it.

  2. Boil the cabbage in milk and water.

Stew

  1. Layer some cabbage at the bottom of a stew pot.

  2. Season the pigeons with pepper and salt, then place them on the cabbage.

  3. Cover the pigeons with the remaining cabbage.

  4. Add broth and stew gently until the pigeons are tender.

  5. Stir in cream, butter, and flour to thicken.

Serve

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cabbage + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together978 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 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, gentle stewing.
Cabbage
Forms the bed and surround for the birds, adding bulk and mild sweetness as it cooks.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, lightly bodied sauce when combined with butter.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, rounding out the sauce's flavor and texture.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the sauce, making it smoother and creamier.

The step that matters

Stir in cream, butter, and flour to thicken. Flour needs to be cooked to lose its raw taste and to thicken properly. Adding cream and flour to liquid that is too hot or not stirred can cause lumps or a grainy sauce, so stir continuously as you add them.

Swap the cabbage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, cream, butter, flour. 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.

You might also like

Red CabbageRed Cabbage65 recipesStewed CabbageStewed Cabbage58 recipesBaked CabbageBaked Cabbage51 recipesCabbage DressingCabbage Dressing19 recipes