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Stewed Pigeon

A stew of pigeons cooked with cabbage, milk, water, broth, and thickened with flour, butter, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Pigeon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Slice the cabbage.

  2. Soak the sliced cabbage in water for pickling.

  3. Drain the cabbage.

  4. Boil the cabbage in milk and water.

  5. Drain the cabbage again.

Stew the pigeons

  1. Place some cabbage at the bottom of a stew pan.

  2. Soak the pigeons for 30 minutes.

  3. Season the pigeons with salt and pepper.

  4. Lay the pigeons on the cabbage.

  5. Cover the pigeons with the remaining cabbage.

  6. Add a little broth.

  7. Stew gently until the pigeons are tender.

  8. Stir in flour, butter, and cream for thickening.

  9. Let the mixture boil.

Serve

  1. Serve the pigeons in the middle with cabbage around them.

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. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Pigeons
Main protein that becomes tender through slow, gentle stewing.
Hard white cabbage
Forms the bed and cover for the pigeons, adding moisture and mild sweetness as it cooks.
Milk
Softens the cabbage and adds a mild, rich flavour to the braising liquid.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smoother sauce when it boils.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the thickened sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the thickened sauce.

The step that matters

Stew gently until the pigeons are tender. Slow, low heat lets the connective tissue in the tough leg muscles break down gradually. Rapid boiling toughens meat and can dry it out, so keep the liquid at a gentle simmer.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, pepper, flour, butter, cream):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, pepper, flour, butter, cream. 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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