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Pigeons, Roast

Roasted pigeons covered with bacon, served on croutons with watercress and sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Watercress and pepper work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 983 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pigeons, Roast

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Draw and truss the pigeons.

  2. Cover each breast with a slice of bacon.

Roast

  1. Roast in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on age and size.

  2. Baste frequently.

  3. A few minutes before serving, remove the bacon to allow the breasts to brown.

  4. Remove the trussing strings and replace the bacon.

Serve

  1. Serve each bird on a crouton, garnished with washed, dried, and seasoned watercress.

  2. Serve the sauce in a sauceboat.

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. Watercress + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together983 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Watercress + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together307 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Watercress + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together295 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sauce + breadtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,934 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Pigeons
Provide the meat, which cooks quickly in a hot oven and stays tender when not overdone.
Bacon
Melts fat over the breasts, keeping them moist and adding savory flavor as it crisps.
Fried bread croutons
Soak up juices and fat from the roasted birds, giving a crisp base under each bird.

The step that matters

Removing the bacon to brown the breasts. Bacon shields the breasts while they cook, so removing it only a few minutes before serving lets the surface brown without drying the meat underneath.

“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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