# Pigeon/Squab?



## Deebo (Oct 27, 2012)

Ok, serious question, Would you eat a city pigeon? Events a few weeks ago put a stop to my plan, and now that its colder, it will be better anyway.
Yes, I plan on video recording me eating a pigeon. I have the coffe can, skewers, slingshot, bbgun and camera phone. stay tuned..but answer please, would you..
This was always a thought, but watching Steve Renella eat a coyote, I decided I was doing it.


----------



## BigCheeseStick (Aug 7, 2013)

Cook the CRAP outta it for sure, but I'd try it. I've had squab in a restaurant and it was good. Not much there, but good (no it didn't taste like chicken!). 

I wouldn't use the slingshot unless it was a "I'm near starvation" situation and I had nothing else. Far to likely to badly wound the animal and have it get away, making it suffer unnecessarily. Most wallyworlds and ANY sporting goods store will have casting nets in the fishing department. You could easily catch half a dozen at a time with the net. Owning it would serve multiple uses, and no real chance of causing the animal to suffer.


----------



## Deebo (Oct 27, 2012)

true enough on the net. I didn't think about it just injuring one. I can headshoot them with my "red ryder bbgun with a compass in the stock", and yes, I plan on fire roasting the heck out of it. I have had dove, and i plan on just quickly "breasting them out" and skewer and cook it. The know it all internet states that city pigeons contain very high amounts of lead and metal, due to eating road debris, but, I figure It wont kill me?? Probably better than processed meat.


----------



## Fuzzee (Nov 20, 2012)

If I was hungry enough I'd eat the ass end of a rhino, so I'd sure as hell eat a pigeon. Cooking the hell out of it seems like a smart idea, but in the end it's a bird and it's meat. The Chinese seem to eat them regularly for what it's worth. Whether that will make your children come out shorter and lousy drivers I don't know. :mrgreen:


----------



## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

I do not see a problem with eating a pigeon as long as you look it over for obvious tumors and such... Hell, in his autobiography "Will", G. Gordon Liddy talks about eating a New Jersey river rat as a kid (because he was deathly afraid of them). If you can eat a New Jersey river rat with no ill effects, I am sure a city park pigeon would be plenty okay.

My only question would be, what wine would you pair with city park pigeon? Do you go with a nice Boon's Farm (vintage last Tuesday) or do you hold out for the good stuff like Ripple? Otherwise there is always the perennial favorite of mixing a bottle of Orange Crush with a tablespoon of JB engine degreaser.


----------



## dwight55 (Nov 9, 2012)

Hey, . . . don't get carried away on cooking the little bird. 

They are tasty, . . . but you'll probably starve if you are a drumstick guy, . . . expending more energy chewing than you get from the legs and thighs on them.

I haven't eaten one in a number of years, . . . but have in the past, . . . they taste more like quail to me than to chicken, . . . although the taste is sorta, kinda, similar.

Mom used to cut em in half, . . . straight down the middle, . . . into the flour, . . . into the frying pan, . . . from the other room, you'ld want to go wash your hands and get set down, . . . vittles were a gettin' ready.

May God bless,
Dwight


----------



## BigCheeseStick (Aug 7, 2013)

Inor said:


> I do not see a problem with eating a pigeon as long as you look it over for obvious tumors and such... Hell, in his autobiography "Will", G. Gordon Liddy talks about eating a New Jersey river rat as a kid (because he was deathly afraid of them). If you can eat a New Jersey river rat with no ill effects, I am sure a city park pigeon would be plenty okay.
> 
> My only question would be, what wine would you pair with city park pigeon? Do you go with a nice Boon's Farm (vintage last Tuesday) or do you hold out for the good stuff like Ripple? Otherwise there is always the perennial favorite of mixing a bottle of Orange Crush with a tablespoon of JB engine degreaser.


If you can eat a Jersey river rat with no ill effects... *"I am Legend"* comes to mind! You WILL be a survivor!


----------



## roy (May 25, 2013)

I'm gonna give it a try when I can get around my wife. Squab are eaten because they are actually bigger than the adults. They slim down when they fledge and get ready to fly. The adult pigeons are bigger than morning dove and white wing. I'm gonna try and just cook the breast like dove and cook the whole bird like quail.


----------



## BigCheeseStick (Aug 7, 2013)

roy said:


> I'm gonna give it a try when I can get around my wife. Squab are eaten because they are actually bigger than the adults. They slim down when they fledge and get ready to fly. The adult pigeons are bigger than morning dove and white wing. I'm gonna try and just cook the breast like dove and cook the whole bird like quail.


Could play things on the safe side... Look Honey, I made you dinner. Dig in!


----------



## Nathan Jefferson (May 11, 2013)

No problem with eating it. Two caveats - watch for parasites when cleaning it - I would guess most, if not all pigeons and birds that live in cities have lice or other external parasites. The other is they could be carrying internal parasites too (a good reason to not eat racoon) so you need to make sure you cook it really well!

As for preparation - in a survival situation I would suggest a stew/soup, throw in a lot of edible wild greens/roots and use it for flavoring! This also makes it easier to get the small amount of food off the bones.


----------



## roy (May 25, 2013)

Yep, boiling is best way to get all nutrients for small game.


----------



## Nathan Jefferson (May 11, 2013)

Also, I suggest you DON"T eat the bones. In non-bird small game and fish eating the smaller bones is generally acceptable but bird bones are more likely to splinter/fracture and could get stuck lodged in you throat much easier.


----------



## retired guard (Mar 7, 2013)

Nathan Jefferson said:


> No problem with eating it. Two caveats - watch for parasites when cleaning it - I would guess most, if not all pigeons and birds that live in cities have lice or other external parasites. The other is they could be carrying internal parasites too (a good reason to not eat racoon) so you need to make sure you cook it really well!
> 
> As for preparation - in a survival situation I would suggest a stew/soup, throw in a lot of edible wild greens/roots and use it for flavoring! This also makes it easier to get the small amount of food off the bones.


Plus one. Gloves are a must! You don't want what's already eating your meal to be eating you!


----------



## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

Nathan Jefferson said:


> The other is they could be carrying internal parasites too (a good reason to not eat racoon) so you need to make sure you cook it really well!


Reminds me of this guy: **** Man Hunts And Lives Well In Detroit! | NewsPirates/From the Quarterdeck


----------



## Leon (Jan 30, 2012)

Deebo said:


> Ok, serious question, Would you eat a city pigeon? Events a few weeks ago put a stop to my plan, and now that its colder, it will be better anyway.
> Yes, I plan on video recording me eating a pigeon. I have the coffe can, skewers, slingshot, bbgun and camera phone. stay tuned..but answer please, would you..
> This was always a thought, but watching Steve Renella eat a coyote, I decided I was doing it.


Man I would eat the hell out of city pigeon. You know pigeons are doves right? People raised wild doves and then released them, so they got re-feralized. Dove, pigeon, same deal. I went dove hunting twice this season got me three of them. My moms boss years ago used to sit in his penthouse office and shoot them with a ruger 22 from his desk and go out and breast them out. Here in my town (until it went yuppie) used to hold annual pigeon shoots in town. It is a dark almost purple meat and it is delicious. I breast them out, wrap the breasts in a little bacon and grill them but there's a million ways to serve it. I have a friend who throws them in a chicken plucker, cleans them and does them stuffed with rice and rolled in Moroccan spices. His are really good. If you get a big pigeon I would suggest doing them like that.


----------



## Leon (Jan 30, 2012)

BigCheeseStick said:


> Cook the CRAP outta it for sure, but I'd try it. I've had squab in a restaurant and it was good. Not much there, but good (no it didn't taste like chicken!).
> 
> I wouldn't use the slingshot unless it was a "I'm near starvation" situation and I had nothing else. Far to likely to badly wound the animal and have it get away, making it suffer unnecessarily. Most wallyworlds and ANY sporting goods store will have casting nets in the fishing department. You could easily catch half a dozen at a time with the net. Owning it would serve multiple uses, and no real chance of causing the animal to suffer.


No he shouldn't need to cook the crap out of it I never do. Agree with the slingshot, might work might not and leave the bird wounded. NEVER cook the crap out of anything, I'd rather get spirogiardia than eat overcooked food.


----------



## Leon (Jan 30, 2012)

Nathan Jefferson said:


> No problem with eating it. Two caveats - watch for parasites when cleaning it - I would guess most, if not all pigeons and birds that live in cities have lice or other external parasites. The other is they could be carrying internal parasites too (a good reason to not eat racoon) so you need to make sure you cook it really well!
> 
> As for preparation - in a survival situation I would suggest a stew/soup, throw in a lot of edible wild greens/roots and use it for flavoring! This also makes it easier to get the small amount of food off the bones.


PEOPLE! You do not need to cook things till they are black, pigeon should be fine done like a cornish hen you do not need to ruin perfectly good squab. They CARRY several dirty things in their poo they aren't known for being a source of it. You got a lot more to risk eating packaged chicken. Pigeons are seemingly filthy but they in reality live fairly clean lives and eat very clean. I'll eat a pigeon before I'll eat one of hanks chickens


----------



## BigCheeseStick (Aug 7, 2013)

Silverbullet said:


> Sure, I'd eat a pigeon. Hell, I would eat the asshole out of a skunk if it was seasoned right!


HAHA! Ever had "Chicken Rings" from a White Castle? Once when my daughter was about 13 and chowing down on a bunch of them I asked her. "You notice that the meat in those is real chicken, not processed right? ... What part of the chicken has muscle and is round like that? .... Yup. Butt hole! That's why their cheap." Her eye's got as big as plates, and we've called them "Chicken butt rings" ever since. 

Still ate them until we moved South where White Castle is but a fond memory.


----------



## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

BigCheeseStick said:


> HAHA! Ever had "Chicken Rings" from a White Castle? Once when my daughter was about 13 and chowing down on a bunch of them I asked her. "You notice that the meat in those is real chicken, not processed right? ... What part of the chicken has muscle and is round like that? .... Yup. Butt hole! That's why their cheap." Her eye's got as big as plates, and we've called them "Chicken butt rings" ever since.
> 
> Still ate them until we moved South where White Castle is but a fond memory.


If I remember correctly, aren't White Castle burgers rat burgers? We used to buy them by the bag full after a night of heavy drinking.


----------



## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

I have shot and eaten pigeons. The breast is very dark meat and dry, so a stew or gravy is really a good thing. Cook it the same way you would any poultry - brown the meat first for flavor and to hold in as much of the natural juices that you can. Use the pan you brown it in to make the broth for the stew or gravy. Salt, dill weed, and pepper are your friends and maybe some garlic - I don't use much of it because I would rather taste the meat - carrots, and potatoes are good additions and are relatively easy to grow. The potatoes will also help to thicken the broth.

Darn! I am getting hungry!


----------

