The history and virtues of eating pigeon meat (squab) 

Can't wait for Adam to eventually show us the pigeons he's raised and how to cook them.

When he starts posting roadkill recipes, he will have achieved his final form.

We grew pigeons when I was a kid. I'm good on the eat part. They are cool to have as a pet. We had white "doves" that we released at weddings they automatically know how to come back home. Apparently you can charge thousands of dollars to literally release your own pets that know how to make their way home.

I grew up eating pigeon meat regularly in my home country Nepal. It is still one of the most popular meat choices there. People grow them in wooded nests, harvesting is done just before they are capable of flying. It definitely tastes amazing. They feed on grains and are very safe to consume.

That's why I season my cities, not my pigeons.

Adam's next video: "how I caught and cooked my own pigeon from down the street"

In my country, Thailand, there was an outbreak of the "bird flu", H5N1, which, while it affected poultry a lot more than pigeons, somehow all the birds were then seen as disease vectors to be avoided (after all it's called the "bird flu"). What birds look as if they could be disease vectors the most? Pigeons. The poultry most affected by the disease (chickens) had economic incentives to have had their reputations be recovered. Probably no one was advocating for pigeons so... maybe that's why it's stuck, at least in my brain as a child at the time.

I did lethal pest removal of over 30 pigeons out of 50 and I fed some to my dog but was very intrigued by the smell so I tried it.... needless to say my dog ate 10 and me and my cousins ate 20 of them 😂

"so what's your defence mechanism?" pigeons: we just breed so much our predators can't possibly eat ALL of us

This man won't stop until he's consumed every bird.

Birds are reluctant to fly in the dark for obvious reasons so collecting pigeons at night was one thing I did as a younger person .. there was a nearby abandoned sugar factory which had maintenance walkways up in the rafters and huge numbers of pigeons roosted up there all I needed was a bag and a flashlight .. great fun and delicious eating

My grandparents were immigrants from Sicily. They made a number of pigeon holes in the gable end of their attic, each hole had a nesting box behind it. We ate pigeon eggs and squabs. I was very young at the time and I can’t remember the taste or the size of the eggs. I’m imagining that it tastes a bit like duck, kinda rich dark meat maybe. It was at least 55 years ago.

Next Video: "The Elites don't want you to know this, but the pigeons at the park are free"

the ytpers now have a voiceclip of adam saying "meaty breasts"

Something else that is important to note about pigeons from an agricultural standpoint is that their poop, when they eat only the seeds that are their correct diets, is some of the best fertilizer out there and is incredibly easy to use and work with. It is round and solid but soft and when the birds are healthy not urial or white and liquid at all.

If anyone has ever heard of "12 gauge" shotguns: the guns that they used to just about extinctify any commercially viable flying flock bird were super large 2 or 4 gauge shotguns. The smaller the gauge, the bigger the hole/bullet and the spread of the birdshot. They would effectively be firing "hand grenades" or "shrapnel" into the air out of cannons that a man could only use laying down or mounted. Entire flocks of birds would drop from each shot. There are a few old timers left who REMEMBER old timers from when they were young who did this long ago, but people forget these massive things existed. If you are curious, look up "The Winchester Wildfowler". I don't think I could bring myself to fire that without someone wrapping my head up in packed cotton xD

Food and how it falls into and out of taboo is fascinating. "Who would eat the abominations of the sea, the creatures that fed on the refuse of sailors in Rime of the Ancient Mariner?" Fried calamari is pretty darn good.

I'm from a small farming town with a lot of old Italian immigrants and one of my dad's friends who's as old school Italian as it gets was telling me a story about how he grew up really poor and his parents were having some wealthy Italians over for dinner and his mom was making dove cacciatore. His dad didn't get any dove that morning when he went hunting but he did get a few pigeons and I believe a crow or something like that so his mom cooked it up and his exact words were "those rich Italians said it was the best dove cacciatore they've ever had"

Thanks Adam! I bought that book and am enjoying it. Pigeons and I go way back. I LOVE your posts! Information and entertainment in excellent proportions! Please keep ‘em coming!

i love how this guy actually gets sponsors that make sense for the type of content he produces

The whole video I thought we were building an argument that it's okay to eat city pigeons. Then right at the end, "NO!" Don't eat them.

Main takeaway from this video: Adam saying Among us for the YTPs

"Squab" also means seat cushion. If you want to know when a squab is about ready to start flying and getting tough, look under their wings. When the feathers fill in there, they are gonna go. There are mad varieties of pigeons. Tumblers actually can't fly well, and flip over in the air. People who live in city apartments can grow pigeons on rooftops.

As an owner of two pet pigeons, can confirm they are the sweetest most beautiful animals.

Looking at his past recent videos, I was holding my breath the whole time waiting for adam to show us how he hunts and prepares pigeons in his new backyard

Adam said "among us" purely to fuel the ytp community and you cannot convince otherwise

In the UK we can sometimes get wood pigeon. I used to buy it from a farmer at my local farmers' market. Wild rabbit too. Both were shot as farm pests. Since then I have moved to a different area and I haven't found a local butcher or farmer that sells them. If you are buying rabbit or wood pigeon skinned and jointed you cannot judge the age of the creature so casseroling is a good option for cooking.

The closest relative (same genus, in fact) to the extinct Passenger Pidgeon is the Band-Tailed Pidgeon. Bandtails are Western forest birds, and do get hunted. There's a project to get the essential bits of Passenger Pidgeon into a Band-tail ovum and bring back the Passenger Pidgeon... no kidding.

They're tasty birds, and living in the city makes us perceive them as pests while when I lived in a farm as a kid they were these cute clean birds

"extremely social and gentle" *takes one step in front of a pigeon* Pigeon: *oh frick that*

My grandmother used to tell me back in Nebraska, they used to get a gunny sack and grab some free pigeons from under bridges for dinner during the WW2. It fed a very large family during hard times and very much enjoyed.

i didnt watch your videos for a while. Ive binge watched so many. Im glad im back

Re: pigeons' homing ability - there was a solar storm in June and racing pigeons all over the UK and Ireland got super lost. My neighbour actually keeps racing pigeons and he lost several.

I can't wait for the follow-up: "Why I Season My Sidewalk, NOT My Pigeon"

I live in Vancouver, and actually eat Squab pretty often. Almost all of the sit down Chinese restaurants serve it. Deep fried until well-done and crispy skinned.

Wow. Adam's videos are so informational..refreshingly different than most of YT. Being mostly pescatarian, I will likely not eat pigeon, but now Im so interested in pigeons.

"Pigeon is litterally just the french word for doves" frenchmen: hold my colombe

10:13 I literally can’t escape it. get out of my head get outta my head

Great content as always. Thank you for this 🙏

I remember watching this old MTV special it followed an average western teen and an average teen in northern Africa. The northern African teen was an Arabian kid, in one part of the episode he went to a small pigeon coop and took out a pigeon and prepared it for a meal for his family. This show aired around 2004 I think, I hope good things turned out good for that guy.

As a native French speaker I might wanna point out that "pigeon" is "pigeon" in French, and "dove" is "colombe". I never knew they where the same species. Might also point out - for those who might find this interesting - that pigeon's meat is often called, at least in Québec, "pigeonneau", which can also mean "baby pigeon". It tastes delicious.

Pigeon: *toots on Adam's head* Adam: So you wanna be next in my videos huh

I have owned this pan you advertised in the middle of the video for the better part of a year, just wanted to find a solid stainless steel pan worth paying money for. It is AMAZING and takes a lot of abuse. Love it. I bake then sear steaks with it, and make sauces in there after reglazing. It really is a great pan and I'm glad to see you doing an ad for a genuinely good product that frankly everyone should own

They are so meek and trusting and social, they are very easy to tame and teach. I worked at a beach amusement park, and I regularly went to interact with them. They flocked to me, and some regularly sat ON me. It amused the tourists. I have no special powers, other than a love for animals, and a habit of showing them that love. They do the rest. My daughter and I regularly caught the odd Pidgeon to cut the fiber, hair, and string that accumulates on their feet, feed the bird, and release it. It got to the point that several severely lame birds began to arrive on my worksite with a posse. I could swear they brought them to me, they rarely put up any kind of objection and held still for the cutting. Perhaps, I like to think, they knew the necessary cutting would result in being fed and released. My immediate supervisor, a true city dweller, was both horrified and amazed, and began to tell me "they brought you another one" She disliked birds as a group, but was amazed at their behavior. I would probably have gotten in trouble, but the Disney like scenes were adored by the tourists. (and I kept most of my Pidgeon whisperer duties to my lunch/break time)

i'm italian and my grandma always makes some pidgeons for sundays, she is a farmer and grows em up herself, they are really good

“To harvest a squab, all you do is pick it up..” idk why but that sentence killed me 😂

Pigeons used to be a common urban food in the USA, people would keep pigeon coups as a hobby and a source of food. I can tell many anecdotes from my father and grandfather how the pigeon coup would be raided for birds and then pawned at the dinner table as cornish hens.

Love these videos, this one and the buffalo video are fascinating. What about crows and ravens...or the crop culture impact or the Chinese swallow.

This got that Uncle Ben “You can take ducks from the park, I have over 392 ducks” energy

10:04 I love how that pigeon had to stop and turn their arse to poop down to the street. It's like they want to poop on someone.

Very informative Adam. Here in south Texas we enjoy the annual dove hunts. We have many wonderful social meals together eating the doves and /or Whitewing dove. Quite often we are treated to pigeons flying with the doves. They are fair game and are enjoyed at the social meals also. Some including myself actually prefer the pigeon. And there is no limit to the amount of pigeons that you may harvest. Pigeons are not protected by game laws .

So neat to watch a RU-vidr who goes to locations I recognize to talk about cool stuff

During WW2, my brother raised pigeons in Cleveland, Ohio. Since all things were rationed, and pigeons (squab) have much meat. We ate many of his unwanted collection, which was quite often. We had as many ways to make it as Bubba's mother had her many ways to make shrimp !

Pigeon is literally my favorite bird meat, I first ate it in Florence, where they make these crispy ravioli filled with pigeon breast served with a balsamic vinegar sauce, just incredible

Excellent short report. Thanks 🙏

I love pidgeons, we have mourning doves around where I live and they look so soft and sweet, and their calls are nice and gentle, exactly what you want to wake up to in the morning. Also pidgeons are so fun to draw. Half circle with another half circle layered over it, small oval on one end, big oval with two eyes, a nose, and a beak on the other. Then congrats! You've got a pidge.

I always thought it was funny that people were calling pigeons nasty and unsafe to eat but still ate chicken.

This would have had perfect timing at the start of the pandemic. Imagine if folks were hunting pigeon from their porches instead of baking sourdough 🤔

Lived with relatives for a couple of years, they raised squab for the market, (near Pleasanton Ca.) There was always a certain percentage of squab that had a visual defect of some sort that could not be brought to market, so squab was a regular menu item. Yum. Nothing with feathers can beat squab. Wish I could afford to buy it now. 🤓 Enjoyed the video, never new most to the info presented.

With the skyrocketing prices of Beef, Chicken and Pork, I've keeping a close eye on the doves in my back yard. Thanks Adam Ragusea!

Adam: "Pigeons are tasty birds." Timmie: "And i took that personally."

Imagine being a pigeon, and hearing a random guy talking about your ancestors, and how good you taste. Damnnn.

Excellent guest on this episode!

The more videos I watch, the more I enjoy your channel.

Us Egyptians eat stuffed pigeons ALL THE TIME and it’s pretty delicious tbh. Some Egyptians also eat the bones of the bird because they are so soft after being cooked, and there’s not much meat on the bird anyways

10:12 I used to think my life was a tragedy, but now I realize it's a comedy.

That ending, "You do you~" Killed me Lmao 😂

In 92' I went to Hong Kong, Macau, and China and ate pigeon many times. It really was fantastic. I'd order it all the time if the restaurants put it on the menu.

When I was in my late teens, a Vermont rural kid in Boston, I mentioned to a group of friends who were hanging out near the Boston Public Library that it seemed a pity they had all these pigeons and no one eating the babies. After a bit of EWWW! went by, they asked if people really ate pigeons? Generally the young ones, I told them, they're called squabs. Some of them had heard that term. Long story short, this led to an amazing expedition across the rooftops of Boston, seeking out and -- yes -- wringing the necks of many squabs. Because of the risk of mites, we skinned them rather than plucked them, which meant we had to use wet heat and make a stew rather than roasting (which would have made them way to dry, without the subcutaneous fat). The activity was sufficiently adventurous, and the end product tasty enough, that this was repeated several times. Who says MIT students are boring? :)

I was waiting for a name drop, "Cher Ami", or 'dear friend' in french. A homing pigeon and veteran of world war 1. His company was pinned and found themselves being shelled by friendly artillery. Cher Ami was shot by a German solider but managed to fly back despite being shot through the breast, blind in one eye and having one leg hanging only by a tendon.

I honestly find pigeons to be so beautiful. If you're in a Walmart parking lot waiting on someone to get done with grocery shopping and you're in the car waiting, they're fascinating to watch. I actually remember one coming up to window and just STARING at me. And they are truly beautiful birds.

As a swede, I was surprised about the comment on squab being of scandinavian origin, never heard anything like it. Indeed, merriam webster says it comes from dialectal swedish, but even in SAOB (basically the official dictionary of historical swedish) theres not a lot of info. Its dialectal and generally refers to thin soup, apparently.

When my Dad was growing up, pigeons would get into the barn, going for the feed stored there. He and my uncles would go bag some, and it was pigeon soup for dinner.

Me: Let’s see what Adam is going to talk about today. Adam: Ever wonder about eating pigeons? Me: I’ve thought about this nonstop for the last 10 nanoseconds. Please educate me

I worked a long way from my house and lived in my camper at a RV park during the work week. I was going pigeon hunting at a dairy on my weekend off. Offered to bring some back for one on my neighbors. They declined. I brought back about 30 breasts and left about 75 at the house. A few weeks later I offered them dinner. Rock dove was on the menu. They enjoyed eating the Rock dove. I gave them about 15 breasts and showed them how to cook it. I brought them a bunch more. Finally told them what it was about a year later, pigeon.

I recently learnt that I have family who owns a small pidgeon farm. Such beautiful birds!

"I guarantee it is making some french person real excited right now" ... Yeah. I come from the southwest of france, where hunting wild pigeon is still a thing and holy moley that looks delicious. I've had pigeon since i was 5 and this one gets my seal of approval. Although here, the "traditional" way to make it is "salmi de palombe", a sort of coq-au-vin way to make it. Hey if you wanna try something new i advise it. That and the rest of the cuisine du sud-ouest. Be warned though, it is not the most diet-friendly.

My neighbor in Syria used to hunt and eat pigeons and I miss him he was a very nice man, he's ok btw

The Wompoo Pigeon is an Australian variety. It is startlingly colourful. It has red, blue, green, violet, yellow and red feathers. Their skin is bright yellow, and the flesh is also. Its call is a soft 'wom-poo' sort of sound. Sometimes this is preceded by a strange gargling sound. Oz is blessed with quite a few different types of pigeon. There are Brown's, Flock Pigeons, Wonga's, which are almost twice the size of a common pigeon, and they are many more types also. In Egypt, large cone-shaped pigeon cotes were made for keeping pigeons. The manure was collected as the droppings fell from the nests inside the cones, and the squabs, baby pigeons, were eaten. They were the babies that were pushed out of the nest by their brothers or sisters, so they would have died anyway. Free meat!!

My Great grandma and grandma from my dad’s side always tell stories of how they used to have a pigeon coop in their neighborhood that all the neighbors would occasionally use to eat the pigeons. Never really even thought about it being weird due to those stories although I’ve never ate a pigeon myself. Didn’t know there was such a taboo against it now

I come from Egypt, where pigeons are a very popular dish. It is stuffed with spices herbs and rice, then boiled and fried till crispy skin, you can probably down like 4 of these birds before feeling full. Extremely delicious and I really recommend people to try it if they visit Egypt.

I never noticed anything wrong with eating pigeons, at least those that aren't in the city eating our trash. I have always shot doves in my back yard and ate them and always thought it was weird that people saw a difference between doves and pigeons. If pigeons ever landed in my yard I would have shot and ate them all the same since they are just doves when it comes to eating them. Also dove breast wrapped in bacon is amazing.

Sorry to correct you, but in french there is a distinction between doves and pidgeons. A dove we would call a colombe, and pigeon is "pigeon". Indeed, pigeons are somewhat of a traditional food of france, although it is not so popular now. I personnally love the lean and slightly gamey taste of pidgeons. If i am in the mood to cook for a whole afternoon, i love a pidgeon pastilla, a traditionnal moroccan sweet pie using brick leaves. It's wonderful, although pideons are small and very tedious to carve into the filling of the pie.

The pans advertised-those pans are great especially the non stick. Makes a great sear and just do a great job.

When I was a little kid, I thought pigeons’ tail feathers were really pretty so I called them “angel birds”

10:13 adam’s being sussy

My Great Grandmother used to send the Great granddad out to hunt them, in Charleston, WV. Back then it was nothing to see People on the Bus, going here and there, with their weapons to go hunting. So, he would go to the edge of Town and pop Pigeons. She never called them Pigeons, though. They were referred to , as Squab. Bon Appetit!

Thank you sir For great story on pigeon or doves. Did not know pigeons were food source for many cultures like emEurooeans, native Americans, Egyptians n more beside being messenger ( great homing skill).

My first thoughts: "Is that the legendary 11'8" Bridge? No... :("

My grandfather raised pigeons for racing and for food, and I have hunted wild dove since I was a kid, so the idea that some people have that pigeons are dirty or an animal that you shouldn't eat seems strange to me. When I see pigeons in the city I have that cartoon pop up over my head where they turn into a roasted bird right before my eyes. Also I don't think city pigeons would necessarily taste bad or be more likely to be toxic due to chemical ingestion. Pigeons are actually rather dicerning eaters, they don't just peck up anything on the ground. And as far as eating old food scraps, almost every small family farm feeds food scraps to chickens and hogs on a daily basis and nobody ever thinks it makes the meat bad or dirty or something.

The NPA is the National pigeon association.. they hold the yearly “pigeon pageant” called the Grand National. Pigeon people from ALL over the world attend.. last year there was over 5,000 birds shown.

I ordered a 10” with your code. Thanks.

FINALLY someone talks about pigeons! We bred these things for food for god damn ages and now nobody wants to eat it! And then people have the gall to look at me weird when i grab pigeons in public parks and cook them on these communal park BBQs. Savages i say...

Nerdy correction: I think you meant magnetic field instead of gravitational field. For the rest great video

Growing up we had a dovecote (palomar). We fed the pigeons cracked corn that we bought in large sacks. It was one of my chores to feed the pigeons by throwing a few handfuls of the corn on top of the garage’s corrugated metal roof in the late afternoon. Pigeons were a part of our menu rotation of proteins. It was delicious but my friends thought we were barbarians.

What a great channel!

This video makes me think of IRON MIKE TYSON, after hearing his harrowing story of his bully ripping the head off of his pigeon it made him the man he is today. He now has a huge collection of pigeons and participates in the pigeon shows, its honestly really sweet

10:13 When the columbiform is strange-looking

We just gonna ignore 0:10 where he said "used for food and... Other various other vital functions" while showing us the sus hole were the head used to be

When I was a teenager I bought some tumbler pigeons and fan tail pigeons from from a poultry auction. My grandfather came to see them and told me that as a young boy (early 1940’s) he raised pigeons and sold them to the hospital (somewhere in Dallas) where they used them as food for the patients. How times have changed.