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Pigeon Pie

A savory pie made with young pigeons, veal or steak, hard‑boiled egg yolks, butter, lemon, spices, and pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Pigeon Pie

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 pigeons

  1. Singe the pigeons slightly and melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Squeeze the lemon juice into the melted butter and fry the pigeons lightly in it for 2-3 minutes.

  3. Place the pigeons in a stewpan lined with bacon, pour the butter and lemon mixture over them, and cover well.

  4. Add a spoonful of rich gravy to prevent frying and cook over gentle heat for 15 minutes.

  5. Drain the pigeons and season with salt, pepper, and spices.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a pie dish, layer the veal cutlet or steak, seasoned with salt, cayenne, and nutmeg.

  2. Add the pigeons, yolks of hard boiled eggs, and plenty of butter, along with a small amount of broth.

  3. Cover with pastry and bake until golden brown.

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

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

  2. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Lemon + vealtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

Young pigeons
Provide the main meat, which is gently cooked and tender in the pie.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, carrying flavour through the cooking and filling.
Veal cutlet or tender rump steak
Adds extra meat that becomes tender and savoury under the pastry.
Hard boiled eggs
Yolks add richness and a smooth, creamy body to the filling.
Puff pastry or plain pastry
Forms a crisp, golden crust that seals in the filling as it bakes.

The step that matters

Cook the pigeons gently in covered butter. Covering the pigeons with butter and a spoonful of gravy over gentle heat keeps them moist and stops them drying or frying. Too much heat would toughen the meat before baking.

“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.

More pigeon pie recipes

Filling 3 See all 224 →

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