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Pigeon Pie

A savory pie of pigeons, mushrooms, herbs, and puff pastry, finished with a consommé sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Pigeon Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Melt a little butter in a pan and sauté the chopped parsley, lemon thyme, and mushrooms.

  2. Season the insides of the pigeons with salt and pepper.

  3. Add the pigeons to the pan and stew for a few minutes.

  4. When they begin to fry, pour in enough consommé to cover the pigeons and let them stew until well done.

  5. Remove the pigeons from the heat and let them cool.

Assemble and bake

  1. Roll out part of the puff pastry and place it around the edge of a pie dish.

  2. Place the pigeons in the dish with the hard-boiled egg yolks and pour half of the cooking liquid over them, adding a little more salt and pepper.

  3. Cover with another layer of pastry, trimming it neatly.

  4. Cut a star shape in the center of the pastry.

  5. Lightly egg-wash the top and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

Finish and serve

  1. In the remaining cooking liquid, add a little butter and heat it up.

  2. Pour the heated buttered consommé over the pie before serving.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pigeons
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through slow stewing in liquid.
Puff pastry
Forms a flaky, crisp crust that browns in the oven and encloses the filling.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add richness and a creamy, crumbly texture to the filling.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and savory, earthy flavor to the filling.
Consommé
Supplies moisture and savory flavor, forming a cooking liquid that is later poured over the pie.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the sautéed herbs and the finishing liquid.

The step that matters

Stewing the pigeons until well done. Pigeon meat is dense and can turn tough if undercooked, so it needs slow, covered simmering in liquid until fully tender before it is baked inside the pastry.

“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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