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Pigeon Pie

A savory pie made with veal cutlet, pigeon, hard‑boiled egg yolks, butter, spices, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Line a large dish with pie crust.

  3. Cover the bottom with veal cutlet or steak, seasoned with salt, cayenne, and nutmeg.

  4. Prepare young pigeons and place them in a single layer in the dish.

Fill the pie

  1. Insert a slice or ball of butter into each pigeon, seasoned with cayenne and mace.

  2. Lay pigeons breast down in the dish and add the yolks of hard-boiled eggs between and over them.

  3. Dot the yolks with butter and season the entire dish with salt and spices.

  4. Pour in cold water or veal broth for gravy.

Bake and serve

  1. Roll out the pie crust cover to ¾ inch thick, secure it around the edge, and decorate it.

  2. Bake for 1 hour or more until golden brown.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Nutmeg + mushroomtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,988 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,446 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Pie crust
Forms the enclosing shell that holds the filling and browns in the oven.
Veal cutlet or rump steak
Adds meaty body and savoury flavour to the base of the pie.
Young pigeons
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender and juicy as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, carrying flavour through the meat.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add richness and a creamy texture that thickens the surrounding juices.

The step that matters

Covering and baking the pie. The crust must be sealed well around the edge so steam and juices stay inside, keeping the meat moist. Baking long enough lets the meat become tender and the crust turn golden.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, butter, egg, mushroom):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, butter, egg, mushroom. 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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