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Squabs Ob Pigeons Broiled

Broiled squabs seasoned with fat pork, butter, and optional cranberries, served on toast with pan butter and broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,933 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Squabs Ob Pigeons Broiled

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.

Prepare

  1. Pluck, draw, and clean the pigeons, wiping them with a wet cloth.

  2. Truss the pigeons neatly, using toothpicks to skewer the wings and legs in place.

  3. Fasten a slice of fat pork over each breast and place a hickory-nut sized bit of butter inside each bird.

Roast

  1. Lay the pigeons in a roasting pan with 2 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of boiling water.

  2. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  3. Baste frequently and roast for about 15 minutes, depending on size.

Serve

  1. Remove the fat pork and serve the pigeons on toast moistened with the pan butter and a little strong broth.

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. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pigeons
The main protein, which is cooked whole so the meat stays moist inside the skin.
Fat pork
Lies over the breast, melting slowly to baste the lean meat and add richness.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, and browns the skin as it bastes the birds in the pan.

The step that matters

Baste frequently and roast for about 15 minutes, depending on size.. Lean game birds dry out quickly in dry heat. Frequent basting with pan butter keeps the surface moist and helps the skin brown evenly, and the time should be checked against the bird's size.

“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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