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Pigeon Pie

A savory pie made with pigeons, beef, mushrooms, bacon, and short crust pastry, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,491 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. 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 pigeons

  1. Pluck the pigeons and draw them overnight.

  2. The next morning, halve the pigeons.

  3. Remove the feet from the pigeons.

  4. Butter a pie dish.

Assemble and cook

  1. Lay strips of beef at the bottom of the dish.

  2. Add the halved pigeons.

  3. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, mushrooms, necks, livers, parsley, and bacon.

  4. Sprinkle with flour.

  5. Add enough cold water to cover.

  6. Add lime juice.

  7. Cover the dish.

  8. Gently simmer until cooked.

  9. Lift the pie.

Top and bake

  1. Place an egg cup in the center.

  2. Add the halved hard boiled eggs.

  3. Cover with short crust pastry.

  4. Brush the pastry with beaten egg.

  5. Make a hole in the center of the pastry.

  6. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

  7. Serve cold.

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. Pepper + limetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + limetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together547 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

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 during the gentle simmer.
Beef steak
Adds savory meaty flavor and richness to the filling as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and helps keep the dish from sticking to the pie dish.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and moisture to the filling.
Hard boiled eggs
Add body and a firm, sliceable texture inside the pie.
Short crust pastry
Forms a crisp, golden crust that encloses the filling.

The step that matters

Gently simmer until cooked. A gentle simmer lets the pigeon meat become tender without toughening or breaking apart. Boiling hard can make the meat tough and cloud the liquid, so keep the heat low and steady.

Swap the lime

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, pepper, mushroom, liver, parsley, flour):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limethe original
  3. Avocadofits less well
  4. Cherryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, pepper, mushroom, liver, 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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