Why don't we eat pigeon?

[booksandnooks]

I just read a thread on a different forum about q guy who caught a restaurant catching pigeons and serving them as chicken.
Apparently he used to eat there all the time and didn't even realise the difference (very aware that this could be a lie) but it got me thinking, we have an abundance of pigeons everywhere.
Why don't we eat them?

It reminded me of the whole horse meat fiasco, nobody could tell the difference. Is it really down to the ICK factor?

[Orgasmagorical]

We do.

[Thunderpunt]

Because it's not coo-l

[BrownEyedGirl80]

You can eat Wood pigeon but not the ones you'd get on the street.I randomly watched a program on this last night

[inmyslippers]

I thought street pigeons were diseased riddled

[Finfintytint]

We do eat them and there are plenty of recipes for them.
I couldn’t though as I can’t get past them as flying rats.

[HirplesWithHaggis]

People do eat pigeon, but not manky city centre pigeons.

[StillCoughingandLaughing]

My mother has a bit of a phobia of pigeons, but also says she could never eat one. What harm they can do her once they’re cooked in gravy and baked in a pie, I don’t know

[WorkplaceLlama]

Well wood pigeon can be found in a lot of restaurants.

But you wouldn't get as much meat from them, you'd have to either catch and kill wood pigeon which would be time consuming or farm them (imagine the practice of farming birds like that and what a mess it would be) because you couldn't eat city pigeons. They have all sorts of diseases.

[ChelseaCat]

Wood pigeon is delicious.

I highly doubt anyone would get away with serving pigeon in place of chicken. Pigeon meat is dark and very flavoursome (awful word sorry), rather than white and bland like chicken.

[Bluntness100]

As others said, we eat wood pigeon, I’ve had it it’s nice, the pigeons running round the streets I don’t fancy eating one of those.

[gelatodipistacchio]

We do. They... don't taste like chicken at all.

[GeidiPrimes]

Pigeon is delicious! Nothing like chicken though, (more like red meat)

I wouldn't fancy eating street pigeon though.

[Picklypickles]

I cooked a pigeon a couple of weeks ago actually! They had them at our local farm shop and my partner has always liked pigeon and was really excited to find it! It was tiny, only really enough meat for him on it! I tried a bit as did our 9yr old daughter and we didn't like it, the meat was very dark and had a strong flavour, not sure how it could possibly be passed off as chicken?!

[Enb76]

I'm not sure you could mistake pigeon for chicken. I eat pigeon quite a lot as it has a lovely earthy flavour. A pigeon breast pan fried in butter, sliced and set on top of a herby salad with sliced apple is a favourite lunch of mine.

[TheSandman]

How would anyone mistake chicken for pigeon?

[Megan2018]

I love pigeon-on the menu frequently at our local. It’s nothing like chicken though.

I’m in an area that serves a lot of game.

[SchrodingersImmigrant]

Probably made up because there is a big difference between meats.

Yeah as pps said, we eat pigeons. We had some a month ago. I like them.

[Frymetothemoon]

I've eaten plenty of pigeon and it is indeed nothing like chicken. It's a totally different colour and has a far stronger taste. It's wood pigeon though, not those flying rats!

[KrisAkabusi]

The OP story sounds like an urban legend, similar to the Chinese restaurant serving cat. Pigeon looks and tastes nothing like chicken. Chicken is also really cheap to buy. You're not going to be able to catch enough pigeons to replace all the chicken a restaurant would normally serve, you'd have to pluck and process it for very little meat. It doesn't add up.

[emmathedilemma]

We do, it's lovely. Quite gamey, a bit like pheasant.

[SchrodingersImmigrant]

I wonder if seagulls in a city centre have a sloght chippy flavour to them😂

[GlubGlubGlub]

People do eat pigeon. It’s really popular and always has been

[EBearhug]

I wouldn't want street pigeon either. Not that bothered about rural wood pigeon, either, but I would certainly think it healthier than urban ones.

They did used to be farmed - housed in dovecote, which provided fertiliser (also ingredients for tanning leather), eggs and meat, depending on when and where in history.

[DappledThings]

My old boss used to shoot pigeon. Occasionally I'd come into work to find a present of a home made pigeon pasty on my desk for lunch. Good times!

[SVRT19674]

i don´t eat them for the same reason I don´t eat rats or cockroaches...