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An English Pigeon-pie

A savory pie made with pigeon, steak, ham, eggs, and puff pastry, baked with stock and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

An English Pigeon-pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Pound the steak, remove the skin and fibers, and cut it into 3x3 inch pieces.

  2. Line the bottom of a pie dish with the steak pieces and season with salt, pepper, and mace.

  3. Clean and truss the pigeons, rub them inside with salt and pepper, and place ½ ounce of butter inside each.

  4. Lay the pigeons on the steak and place a slice of ham on each.

  5. Add the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs and sliced whites if desired.

  6. Fill the dish with stock, thickening it with a brown roux if preferred.

  7. Add a few balls of good forcemeat and small dice of the puff paste.

Cover and bake

  1. Edge the dish with a band of paste, cover it, notch the edges together, and trim them.

  2. Clean the pigeons' feet and stick them, claws upward, in the center of the top.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 1 hour, watching for even baking.

  4. Remove from the oven, brush the surface with a beaten egg yolk mixed with a few drops of milk, and return to the oven for 5 more minutes until browned.

Serve

  1. Serve hot or cold; cold is best.

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. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

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

  3. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Rump steak
Becomes tender and savory as it cooks, forming the base of the filling.
Pigeons
Provide the main meat and rich flavor at the center of the pie.
Ham
Adds salty, savory depth that complements the pigeon and steak.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add richness and body to the filling when yolks are set within it.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the birds moist as they bake.
Puff paste
Forms a flaky, golden crust that seals and browns the pie.

The step that matters

Baking the covered pie. Meat in a sealed pie must cook through without drying out. Even oven heat and a steady bake let the steak and birds become tender while the pastry sets and browns.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

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