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Stewed Pigeons

A dish of pigeons stewed with butter, lemon, bacon, gravy, and served with brown sharp sauce or sauce piquant.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Stewed Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and fry

  1. Singe the pigeons slightly.

  2. Melt the butter and squeeze the lemon juice into it.

  3. Fry the pigeons lightly in the butter two or three times.

Stew and serve

  1. Place the pigeons in a stewpan lined with bacon.

  2. Pour the melted butter and lemon juice over the pigeons.

  3. Add the rich gravy to prevent frying.

  4. Cover and cook over gentle heat for 15 minutes.

  5. Drain and serve with brown sharp sauce or sauce piquant.

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. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Squab + buttertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together48 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Squab + saucetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  5. Squab + lemontop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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
The main meat, which becomes tender through gentle stewing in its liquid.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and browns the birds during the light frying.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that cuts through the rich butter and gravy.
Bacon
Lines the pan, adding savoury fat and flavour that seeps into the birds.
Rich gravy
Adds moisture and savoury flavour while the pigeons finish cooking.

The step that matters

Cover and cook over gentle heat. Gentle heat in a covered pan keeps the meat moist and tender. High heat toughens muscle proteins and dries the surface, so the birds can turn stringy. The added gravy helps keep the pan from frying the pigeons further.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (squab, butter, sauce):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Grapefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against squab, butter, 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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