Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Baked Pigeon Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Pluck, singe, and draw the pigeons. Cut off the heads and necks, setting them aside with the livers and gizzards.
Boil the heads, necks, livers, and gizzards with a piece of beef, adding pepper, coarse sea salt, and mace to make gravy.
Divide the pigeons into quarters by splitting them lengthwise down the back and along the breastbone, then cutting across.
Place a pie cup inverted in the center of the pie dish to retain the gravy.
Layer lean beef steak (or veal) at the bottom of the dish, then add the quartered pigeons until the dish is full.
Halve the hard-boiled eggs crosswise and use them to fill any gaps between the pigeons for a level crust.
Pour the gravy over the pigeons and eggs.
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.
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,257 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Beef + macetop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,969 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Beef + eggtop 31% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together50,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, egg):
- Parsleyfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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