Pigeons: The Next Step in Local Eating
 

I'm not sure how I feel about this. Personally, I hate pigeons, and I despise the people who insist on feeding them.

But, i do have a policy of eating anything with four (or two) legs that isn't furniture, so I guess I'd have to give it a shot at least once, right?

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2...igeon-mea.html


Would you?

I used to eat pigeons in the summer as a child. A Spanish aunty who had previously been a cook for a local Count would cook the game brought back by my uncle. Pigeons were often on the menu. They were delicious. I particularly used to enjoy the hearts.

Even if I still ate meat, I don't think I could eat pigeons that had scavenged off of city streets. I still feel ill remembering the pigeons I've seen eating curry and lager vomit.

First, what urbanites call "pigeons" are actually more accurately "rock dove", a species which has well adopted to feral existence and survival in urban areas (because there's plenty to eat which doesn't move fast enough to get away and more than enough shelter). While you wouldn't want to eat them, there's nothing wrong with their offspring (if exposed only to a less "gamy" diet).

Years ago, we used to bait/trap the adult birds in old vacant buildings to be used for a sporting event which PETA would certainly describe as beyond barbaric, "Pigeon Shoots", in which the birds are hurled by "trained" pigeon-chuckers aloft in front of shot gunners. While the serious casualty rate among pigeon-chuckers remains modest (small shot rarely decapitates), the live birds do provide more action than clays in skeet or trap setups.

Pigeon/Rock Dove raised at home (or the semi-wild "Barn-bred" birds) are succulent fare when eaten young ("Squab"), a real delicacy when carefully prepared. The adult birds are certainly edible, but in my experience work best in "Game Pies" or similar casserole/slow moist cooking environments.

Spitted squab, wrapped in smoky bacon and cooked over coals, are certainly the equal of mourning or white-wing dove (and once used to the ideal of "dark meat"), not far behind quail (or even partridge) in sauteed dishes.

The best avian food I ever ate was medium-rare breast of pigeon
with celeriac and truffles at Vau in Berlin a few years ago.

I guess in the end I wasn't clear about the article's point. Does the author expect us to eat those "urban pigeons?" I think I'd rather starve. Might as well eat rat at that point.

Squab, on the other hand...

Of course, the real question is, are there specific breeds of spanish pigeons that we can argue about... :D ;)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=R36CixkIaIc

No argument, it's awful!

Wow! That is something. And you know they probably got paid for it and everything.

The only argument is which paloma blanca is worse.

At the same time that the George Baker version was in the British charts this one by the creepier Jonathan King was also there. Both were in the top ten at one point :eek:.

And I can vaguely stay in topic as this is the Dining Forum by letting you know that we got Paloma Blanca all over again - this time on the farm with cider.

Well, NSS, what exactly do you think is the difference between
pigeon/rock dove and squab?

Heh heh.

As my wife is Chinese, we often eat pigeon -- it's very good, a little gamier and drier than chicken, but quite tasty. When my mother was alive, we used to tell her we were ordering squab. She tried it and agreed it was quite good. She passed away a few years ago and we never told her she had been enjoying pigeon -- she was from New York. She'd have been appalled!

Full circle. The Rock Dove was originally domesticated for food.

I've eaten wood pigeon (Columba spp. like the feral pigeon) in the U.K. (the one with the white ring/mark on their necks). Quite nice and surprisingly even the "white" meat is a dark red. Said to be the biggest pigeon.

Pigeons are eaten everywhere which explains the dovecots you find in France, U.K., and Egypt/N. Africa. China seems to specialise in squab. Yeah, I wouldn't want to eat urban pigeons but the ones that come from rural areas should be fine.

Pigeon Fanciers
 

...have always claimed the versatility of their birds, this just proves they are indeed suitable for a variety of uses. :)

I've had pigeon "empanada"-type things in Morocco. Pigeons are a popular ingredient in Moroccan cuisine - and they're sold (live) in many markets there...