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Pigeon Pie

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

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

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the steak into pieces about 4 inches square and line the bottom of a pie dish with them.

  2. Season the steak pieces with pepper and salt.

  3. Cut each pigeon in half.

  4. Season the inside and outside of each pigeon half, and place a small piece of butter inside each half.

  5. Lay the pigeon halves on the steak pieces.

  6. Add a piece of ham on each pigeon half.

  7. Arrange the hard-boiled eggs around the dish.

  8. Fill the dish with good stock.

Make the crust and bake

  1. Place a border of puff pastry around the edge of the dish, then cover the top with a thick layer of puff pastry.

  2. Insert three pigeon feet into the hole at the top of the crust.

  3. Brush the crust with beaten egg yolk.

  4. Bake in a well-heated oven at 400 °F (200 °C) for 1½ 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. Pepper + buttertop 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
Becomes tender during the long bake and gives the pie its meaty body.
Pigeons
Supply the main meat flavour and rich, dense texture of the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the pigeon meat moist as it cooks.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add firm, mild texture and body to the filling.
Puff pastry
Forms a flaky, layered crust that puffs and browns in the oven.
Egg yolk
Brushed on the crust to promote browning and a glossy finish.

The step that matters

Insert the steam hole and keep the crust sealed. Puff pastry relies on layers of fat and water turning to steam to rise. Sealing the border and cutting a vent at the top let steam escape without collapsing the crust while the filling cooks through.

“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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