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Pigeon Pie

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pigeon Pie

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pick, cut, and clean the birds like chickens.

  2. Make a force meat with cold veal, grated ham, nutmeg, mace, cloves, and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Fill the birds with the dressing and rub the outside with salt and pepper.

  4. Tie the legs down with thread, which should be cut off when serving.

  5. Place the birds in a stew pan with a piece of butter on each and a little flour.

  6. Add a little water to the bottom of the pan to prevent burning and cover.

  7. Cook until tender, then remove the birds and cut off the threads.

  8. If the gravy is not thick enough, add butter rolled in flour, boil once, and pour over the birds 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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, nutmeg, clove, pepper, butter, flour):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, nutmeg, clove, pepper, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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