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Pigeon Pie

A pie made with mashed potatoes and stewed pigeons, seasoned with salt, pepper, marjoram, parsley, eggs, and fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,979 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Pigeon Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the potato

  1. Boil the potatoes in a small amount of water until tender.

  2. Drain and mash the potatoes with a fork.

  3. Season with salt, white pepper, dried marjoram, and chopped parsley.

  4. Mix in the melted fat and 2 eggs until well combined.

Assemble and bake

  1. Spread a layer of the potato mixture around the bottom and sides of a pie dish.

  2. Add the stewed pigeons on top of the potato layer.

  3. Cover the pigeons with the remaining potato mixture, shaping the edges nicely.

  4. Brush the top with egg yolk.

  5. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven 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. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Potato + marjoramtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. White pepper + parsleytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. White pepper + marjoramtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together134 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Floury potatoes
Their starch softens into a smooth mash that forms the pie's base and crust.
Eggs
They bind the mashed potato and, brushed as yolk, give the top a golden colour.
Dripping or melted fat
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed potato, keeping it soft and tender.
Stewed pigeons
Forms the savoury, meaty filling sandwiched between the potato layers.

The step that matters

Mashing the potatoes smooth before adding the fat and eggs. Lumps or overworked starch make the potato layers gluey or uneven, and mixing in fat and eggs while the potato is still warm helps them blend into a cohesive, pliable topping that holds its shape.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, marjoram, parsley, egg):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, marjoram, parsley, egg. 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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