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Pigeons in a Marinade

A dish of pigeons marinated in lemon, vinegar, and herbs, then fried and served with a tarragon vinegar butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Pigeons in a Marinade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pigeons

  1. Split the pigeons in half and remove the backbone.

  2. Combine the lemon juice, vinegar, salt, peppercorns, garlic, carrot, onion, parsley, and bay leaf in a bowl.

  3. Add the pigeon halves to the marinade and let them sit for at least 6 hours.

Fry and drain

  1. Heat lard in a pan until hot.

  2. Dust the marinated pigeons with flour and fry them until golden brown.

  3. If using, fry the mushrooms in the same pan after the pigeons.

  4. Place the fried pigeons on paper to drain excess fat.

Make the sauce

  1. Prepare a butter sauce and stir in the tarragon vinegar.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

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

  5. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Pigeons
Provide the meat that is cooked and fried until golden brown.
Lemon juice
Acidity in the marinade that tenderises the meat and adds brightness.
Vinegar
Acidity in the marinade that helps tenderise the meat and sharpen its flavour.
Flour
Forms a light coating that browns during frying and crisps the outside.
Lard
Fat for frying that conducts heat and gives the pigeons a rich, browned surface.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity and aroma to the butter sauce.

The step that matters

Frying the floured pigeons. Lard must be hot before the floured pigeons go in, otherwise the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy instead of crisp and golden. Pieces should be dried of excess marinade first so the flour adheres and browns evenly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, clove, garlic, carrot, onion, parsley, flour):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Cherryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, clove, garlic, carrot, onion, parsley, flour. 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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