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Squabs or Pigeons Broiled

Roasted squabs or pigeons with fat pork, butter, and optional cranberries, served on toast with butter and broth.

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 Broiled

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, draw and clean the pigeons.

  2. Wipe the pigeons with a wet cloth.

  3. Truss the pigeons neatly, using wooden toothpicks to skewer the wings and legs in place.

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

  5. Place a bit of butter the size of a hickory nut inside each bird.

Roast and serve

  1. Lay the pigeons in a roasting pan with 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of boiling water.

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

  3. Baste frequently.

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

  5. Remove the fat pork.

  6. Serve the pigeons on toast moistened with the butter from the pan 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

Squabs or tender pigeons
Provide the main meat, which cooks quickly and stays tender when roasted whole.
Fat pork
Bastes the breast meat from above, adding moisture and richness as it melts.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and browns in the pan to flavour the birds and toast.

The step that matters

Roast for about 15 minutes, depending on size. Squabs are small and lean, so overcooking dries the breast meat quickly. Frequent basting with butter and pan liquid helps keep the meat moist while it browns.

“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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