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Pigeon Pie

A savory pie with steak, pigeons, ham, butter, eggs, stock, and puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Pigeon Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Line the bottom of a pie dish with steak pieces, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  3. Rub cleaned pigeons inside and out with salt and pepper, and place half a cup of butter inside each bird.

Assemble

  1. Lay the pigeons on the steak and top each with a slice of ham.

  2. Add the beaten yolks of 5 eggs and fill the dish halfway with stock.

  3. Cover with puff pastry, making a hole in the top for steam to escape.

Glaze and bake

  1. Brush the crust with the yolk of one egg to glaze.

  2. Bake for 1.5 hours.

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. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak
Browns and releases savory juices that flavor the filling and stock.
Pigeons
Supply the main meat, which becomes tender as it cooks slowly in the dish.
Ham
Adds salty, savory flavor that seasons the birds and filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the birds moist as they roast.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and thicken the filling, and the glaze helps the crust brown.
Puff pastry
Forms a crisp, flaky crust that rises through layers of fat and steam.

The step that matters

Making a hole in the pastry crust. Steam builds up as the filling heats. A vent lets it escape so the crust does not lift, split or turn soggy, and the filling stays contained.

“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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