Americans used to eat pigeon all the time—and it could be making a comeback

www.popsci.com ^ | February 16, 2018 | By Eleanor Cummins

[Red Badger]

I broke a tooth on an oyster once.

It had a small pearl........................

[Tax-chick]

Ow.

[ZOOKER]

Had dove once and it was good (wild, not farmed). Slightly gamy, therefore better than the chickens they breed all the taste out of.

[Red Badger]

I still have it at home in a box......................the pearl, not the tooth...............

[Tax-chick]

You can’t substitute one for the other!

[elcid1970]

IIRC, squab is domestically raised. I remember it before Cornish game hen became popular.

I also remember when flank steak was inexpensive & when marinated, broiled & sliced across the grain, was delicious.

Christmas dinner was never turkey but a large breed of roasting chicken which came out moist through & through.

[Red Badger]

Chicken that is fresh and was walking around the yard this morning is soooo different that the plain tasteless chicken that is sold in grocery stores. If Americans only knew what it really tastes like.....................

[Wissa]

They are really good, just like quail.

I've never had quail. I've had pigeons and mourning doves. Every time I had pigeon the meat was always tough. I much prefer the dove meat.

[Terry Mross]

It really does taste like chicken.

[vladimir998]

Bring back the dove cote!

[Red Badger]

Just remember if you have oysters of any kind you might find a small pearl. Irregular shaped but hard as a rock, it can chip a tooth. So bite carefully the first few chews.................

[JimRed]

I worked winter seasons in a Manhattan night club back in ‘69-’70-’71, summers at the Jersey Shore. One late afternoon on New York City’s East Side I was walking...I don’t recall where I was going or coming from...and saw a large flock of pigeons congregated on the sidewalk near an alleyway, eating something. A man suddenly sprang from the alley and with a swipe of a huge landing net (King Salmon sized, maybe) scooped up half a dozen or more of them. Not a lot of doubt about the purpose of that capture!

BTW, I hunted pigeons in a picked over cornfield near home in the fall a few years before that, and they were tasty. But I assume country pigeon has a better diet than city pigeon.

[MomwithHope]

In south Chicago during the depression my Dad would set traps at a nearby grainery where the grain had spilled. They ate a lot of sparrow stew.

[Wissa]

In a tough situation I’ll take crow.

Outside of a starvation situation, I plan to avoid consuming carrion-eaters.

[Red Badger]

Yes, but the city pigeons are fatter!.....................

[Red Badger]

I bet it was delicious!..................

[TXSearcher]

Well, if they taste anything like dove........I'd eat them.

[Red Badger]

Exactly...................

[MomwithHope]

Well he didn’t speak fondly of it. It must have been like eating crawfish, suck off the tiny bit of meat and throw out the carcass.

[Red Badger]

Yeah, there ain’t much there, so you gotta make up in volume.....................I had European quail once in an expensive restaurant. Got two tiny birds that I’d swear the chef just went out in the parking lot and captured.................