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Preserve

Pigeon Pie

A savory pie filled with pigeon halves, steak, ham, eggs, and stock, topped with a crust and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Prepare and skin the pigeons, then cut them in half and rub each piece with a mixture of pepper and salt.

  2. In a pie dish, place the steak pieces rolled in seasoning.

  3. Arrange the pigeon halves on top of the steak.

  4. Add a bit of butter and ham on or near each piece of pigeon.

  5. Pour in enough stock to nearly fill the dish without boiling over.

  6. Boil the eggs hard, slice them, and add to the pie before covering.

Cover and bake

  1. Cover with pie crust, making sure to cut a hole in the center.

  2. Glaze the crust with the yolk of an egg thoroughly.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 to 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

Pigeons
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender during the long slow bake.
Steak
Adds meaty body and savory flavor that fills the pie with juices.
Ham
Adds salty, savory flavor that seasons the filling and stock.
Eggs
Hard-boiled and sliced, they add richness and firm texture to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor through the filling.

The step that matters

Pour in the stock carefully. Filling the dish nearly full without overflowing leaves room for the crust and for liquid to thicken into a rich gravy as the meat cooks. Too little stock leaves the meat dry, while too much can boil over the rim during baking.

“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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