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Pigeons, a LA Maintenon

A French dish of roasted pigeons served with a mushroom and Allemande sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pigeons, a LA Maintenon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the pigeons lengthwise and remove the bones.

  2. Season with pepper and salt.

Make the sauce

  1. Fry in a sauté pan with butter, mushrooms, parsley, and shallots.

  2. Add Allemande sauce, essence of mushrooms, nutmeg, and lemon juice; simmer for 5 minutes.

  3. Allow to cool partially.

Pack and cook

  1. Trim corners of note paper for each piece of pigeon.

  2. Oil the paper, place the pigeons inside with sauce, and twist edges to secure.

  3. Broil over a moderate fire.

Serve

  1. Serve arranged on a napkin with brown Italian sauce on the side.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

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 cooks tender and holds the sauce inside the paper.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the pigeon brown and carry flavour.
Allemande sauce
Adds a rich, creamy body that keeps the pigeon moist while it cooks.
Mushrooms
Contribute earthy aroma and savoury depth to the filling.
Shallots
Add a mild, sweet onion aroma that builds the base flavour.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances the fat.

The step that matters

Twisting the paper to seal the pigeon before broiling. If the paper is not oiled and sealed tightly, the sauce can leak or the paper can scorch before the pigeon cooks through, so the moisture stays trapped only when the packet is well closed.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, mushroom, parsley, shallot, sauce, lemon):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, mushroom, parsley, shallot, sauce, lemon. 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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