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Roast Pigeons

Roast pigeons stuffed with liver, bacon, breadcrumbs, herbs, and claret, then roasted and served with gravy and bread sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Roast Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Pound the liver, bacon, bread crumbs, mace, pepper, salt, parsley, thyme, egg yolk, and claret together.

Stuff and truss

  1. Stuff the mixture into the pigeons and truss them for roasting.

  2. Tie a piece of fat bacon over the breast of each pigeon.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the pigeons for about 25 minutes, basting constantly.

  2. Serve with good gravy and bread sauce.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Mace + thymetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,113 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pigeon liver
Adds richness and a soft, moist texture to the stuffing.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour, and bastes the birds as it renders.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and bind the stuffing so it holds together.
Egg yolk
Binds the stuffing and helps it set slightly when cooked.
Claret
Adds acidity and wine flavour that cuts the richness of the liver.

The step that matters

Basting constantly while roasting. Pigeon is a lean, small bird that can dry out quickly. Frequent basting with its own fat and juices keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, bread, pepper, parsley, thyme, egg):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, bread, pepper, parsley, thyme, egg. 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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