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Squabs or Pigeons Roasted

A roasted squab or pigeon served with fat pork and butter, optionally garnished with cranberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Squab and pork work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 26 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Squabs or Pigeons Roasted

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 the birds

  1. Pluck the pigeons.

  2. Draw the pigeons.

  3. Clean the pigeons.

  4. Wipe the pigeons with a wet cloth.

  5. Truss the pigeons neatly.

  6. Skewer the wings and legs with wooden toothpicks.

  7. Fasten a slice of fat pork over each breast.

  8. Place a bit of butter inside each bird.

Roast

  1. Lay the pigeons in a roasting pan.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of boiling water to the pan.

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

  4. Baste frequently.

  5. Roast for about 15 minutes, depending on size.

  6. Remove the fat pork.

Serve

  1. Serve on toast moistened with pan butter and a little strong broth.

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. Squab + porktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Squab + buttertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together48 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Pigeons
The main protein, which cooks quickly and stays tender when roasted briefly at high heat.
Fat pork
Lays over the breast to baste the meat with melting fat, keeping it moist and adding flavour.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the skin brown and the meat stay moist in the pan.

The step that matters

Roast for about 15 minutes, depending on size. Pigeon meat is lean and cooks fast, so overcooking dries it out. Basting frequently keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly at high oven heat.

“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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