Why it works: Onion and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Salmi of Pigeon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and brown
Cut each pigeon into four pieces.
Melt the butter in a stewpan and brown the pigeon pieces well.
Remove the pigeons from the pan.
Make the gravy and simmer
Add flour to the butter, stirring until smooth.
Gradually add the stock, bouquet garni, onions, and salt pork.
Simmer for 40 minutes.
Add the pigeons back into the pan and allow to simmer for another 15 minutes.
Serve
Remove the pigeons and arrange them on a dish with the onions.
If desired, add croutons.
Remove excess grease from the gravy with a piece of white paper before serving.
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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Onion + porktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + porktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,933 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together32,460 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
What each ingredient does
- Pigeons
- Provide the main meat, which becomes tender during the long simmer.
- Butter
- Carries browning flavour and enriches the gravy with fat.
- Flour
- Thickens the stock into a smooth gravy when cooked in the butter.
- Stock
- Forms the liquid base of the gravy and carries the flavour of the stew.
- Small onions
- Soften during simmering and add sweetness to the gravy.
- Salt pork
- Adds savoury fat and salty, smoky flavour to the gravy.
The step that matters
Brown the pigeon pieces well. Browning creates deep flavour through the Maillard reaction on the meat surface. Pale, under-browned pieces will leave the gravy tasting flat, and the pieces should be dried first so they sear rather than steam.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, pork):
- Potatofits better
- Shallotfits better
- Chivefits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pork. 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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