The head, the tail, the whole dang thing

[minoanmiss]

I spent the first day of the year mostly asleep with an interlude to cook. I prepped my birthday dinner, which includes a squab pigeon.

They certainly gave me my money's worth! Everything except the feathers and the guts. I am impressed that they cleaned and peeled the feet while still attached. I was tempted to leave the head on for presentation but decided that might be a bit startling.

Comments

[bikergeek]

Spring is here, suh-puh-ring is here, life is Skittles and life is beer....

[minoanmiss]

cackles

[dissectionist]

Weirdly enough, I was thinking of that song this morning! I was considering singing it for my students in a couple days because I’m pretty sure none of the 19-or-20-year-old kids have ever been exposed to Tom Lehrer.

[bikergeek]

I hope they enjoy. :)

[dissectionist]

I’m the one who feeds them the more unusual-to-an-urban-palate stuff (rabbit, elk, wild boar, moose, etc), so the family is used to it from me. I’ve just never known where to find squab, and I got blank looks the couple times I asked at butcher shops.

[dissectionist]

Ha, I just woke up and thought your response was to my comment about feeding my family some pigeon - it’s going to look like a weird non-sequitor in this thread!

[lb_lee]

PIGEON!!!!

[minoanmiss]

I am so looking forward to this!

[lb_lee]

Pigeon pigeon pigeon pigeon

[sovay]

I was tempted to leave the head on for presentation but decided that might be a bit startling.

It works with fish!

(I came by to leave the photos in this article about Black mermaids.)

[acelightning73]

I spent the first day of the year doing as little as possible. My rice cooker had malfunctioned last night (it's only happy with white basmati rice), but the breaker wasn't tripped. So I tried to use it to make regular white rice, and it worked fine.

Where on earth do they sell pigeons? (I lived in the city too long to think of pigeons as edible, except by the occasional hawk or owl. Pigeons aren't "poultry"; they're rats with wings, scavengers who carry all kinds of parasites.). I know that the chicken feet they sell in the Asian grocery aren't peeled or cleaned - theyre cooked skin on, and using teeth and chopsticks to tease the bits of meat and cartilage off the bones is part of the charm (to a Chinese person) of eating them. I can't imagine you can get a squab in Stop& Shop.

[minoanmiss]

No, the chicken feet in Asian grocery shops are cleaned -- they're blanched and the top layer of skin peeled off, leaving the lovely bottom layer of skin and all that delightful cartilage to chew off. Jamaicans eat chicken feet as well (I bonded with a Chinese coworker once over this) so I watched my grandmother prep them when I was a child.

Pigeons also come from Asian markets and gourmet poultry shops, where they get called "squab" so people won't envision them being hunted on the subway. I got this one from my local Asian shop but didn't realize till I unwrappeed it that they'd tucked the head and neck in on top.

[dissectionist]

AHAHA THANK YOU FOR THIS. Now that I know where to get them, I’m so making pigeon.

[lb_lee]

I AM FULLY IN FAVOR OF MORE PIGEON EATING MWAHAHA

Local wal-mart

[dialecticdreamer]

The store carries "Chicken paws" (I flinch every time I read the label due to grammar) but I'm not sure if a you tube video would be enough instruction for me. So, if the partial batch doesn't have a texture that I enjoy, can I use them for making stock?

Re: Local wal-mart

[minoanmiss]

they are PERFECT for making stock. All skin and connective tissue and bone, they produce lots of gelatin for their size.

This discussion is reminding me to get some for my next stockpot!

Re: Local wal-mart

[dialecticdreamer]

Then they're going on my next shopping list! Thanks! I always worry about wasting food if I absolutely abhor the flavor or texture, and with that worry out of the way, it's an easy new food to acquire and try.

Re: Local wal-mart

[full_metal_ox]

For that reason, feet and wings are considered desirable food for women in Korea and China: collagen is supposed to be beautifying to the skin.

[acelightning73]

My son lives in a neighborhood in Queens where there are a lot of Greek and Middle Eastern people. There's a butcher shop near his house where they sell suckling pigs and baby lambs for holiday roasting. But I don't want those - and I don't want to eat squab. If I want a single-serving bird, I'll buy Cornish game hens. (For his Yule feast, my son served roasted quails as appetizers. I didn't eat any, because he'd seasoned them with things I shouldn't eat. He also roasted a whole chicken (seasoned especially with things I like and can eat, I ate the white meat, and two other people ate the thighs. And the main course was roast beef, which my daughter-in-law can't eat, due to a mammal-meat allergy caused by cancer chemotherapy (like the phenomenon caused by tick bites)

[lunabee34]

Heeee. The whole dang bird!

[julian]

Little bitty Cornish game hens are also nice, but it's good to know a place to source squab (pigeon, what have you), too.

[acelightning73]

I like to stuff cornish hens with wild rice - and I once had to make a medieval recipe of "smalle birdes" stuffed with dates and mustard. I find both dates and mustard inedible, but I kept aside one hen and stuffed it with rice and chopped walnuts for myself. And there's a recipe on YouTube for a holiday dinner with cornish hens prepared to look like miniature stuffed turkeys, and to make miniature single-serving-size mock hams, so every dinner guest had their own turkey and ham. (Chef John)