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Stewed Pigeons

Stewed pigeons stuffed with bread crumbs, egg yolk, herbs, and mushrooms, simmered in gravy, stock, and white wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Stewed Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in milk.

  2. Mix the soaked bread crumbs with egg yolk, pepper, salt, parsley, shallot, and mushrooms to make stuffing.

  3. Stuff the pigeons with the mixture.

Stew and serve

  1. In a stewpan, melt butter or dripping and fry the pigeons with bacon for a few minutes.

  2. Add gravy or stock and white wine, cover, and stew gently until cooked through.

  3. Strain the gravy and serve with the pigeons.

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. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  5. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Absorb milk to form a binding stuffing that holds its shape while cooking.
Egg yolk
Binds the stuffing together, helping it set as it cooks.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and savory, earthy flavor to the stuffing.
Butter or dripping
Fat for frying the pigeons, promoting browning and rich flavor.
Bacon
Renders fat and savory flavor into the pan while the pigeons brown.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the stewing liquid, balancing the rich gravy.

The step that matters

Stew gently until cooked through. A gentle, covered simmer cooks the dense pigeon meat through and keeps it tender; boiling vigorously toughens the muscle fibers and can dry the outside before the stuffing and centre are done.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, egg, pepper, parsley, mushroom, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, egg, pepper, parsley, mushroom, butter. 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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