• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

FORAGER | CHEF

Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

  • Home
  • About
  • Wild Mushrooms
    • Mushroom Archive
    • Posts by Species
      • Other Mushrooms
        • Lobster Mushrooms
        • Huitlacoche
        • Shrimp of the Woods
        • Truffles
        • Morels
        • Shaggy Mane
        • Hericium
        • Puffball
      • Polypores
        • Hen of the Woods
        • Dryad Saddle
        • Chicken of The Woods
        • Cauliflowers
        • Ischnoderma
        • Beefsteak
      • Chanterelles
        • Black Trumpet
        • Hedgehogs
        • Yellowfeet
      • Gilled
        • Matsutake
        • Honey Mushrooms
        • Russula / Lactarius
          • Candy Caps
          • Saffron Milkcap
          • Indigo Milkcap
      • Boletes
        • Porcini
        • Leccinum
        • Slippery Jacks
    • Recipes
      • Fresh
      • Dried
      • Preserves
    • The Basics
  • Plants
    • Plant Archive
    • Leafy Green Recipes
      • Leafy Green Plant Varieties
    • Ramps and Onions
    • Wild Herbs and Spices
      • Spruce and Conifers
      • Pollen
      • Prickly Ash
      • Bergamot / Wild Oregano
      • Spicebush
      • Golpar / Cow Parsnip
      • Wild Carraway
    • Wild Fruit
      • Wild Plums
      • Highbush Cranberry
      • Wild Grapes
      • Rowanberries
      • Wild Cherries
      • Aronia
      • Nannyberry
      • Wild Blueberries
    • From The Garden
    • Nuts, Roots, Tubers and Grains
    • Stalks and Shoots
  • Meat
    • Four-Legged Animals
      • Venison
      • Small Game
    • Poultry
    • Fish/Seafood
    • Offal and Organ Meat Recipes
    • Charcuterie
  • Recipes
    • Pickles, Preserves, Etc
    • Fermentation
    • Condiments
    • Appetizers
    • Soup
    • Salad
    • Side Dishes
    • Entrees
    • Baking
    • Sweets
  • Video
    • Field, Forest Feast (The Wild Harvest)
    • Foraging Videos
    • Lamb and Goat Series
    • YouTube Tutorials
  • Press
    • Podcasts / Interviews
  • Work
    • Public Speaking
    • Charity and Private Dinners
    • Forays / Classes / Demos

WildFed: The Pigeon Hunt

Smoked pigeon brochette with sunflower rolls, wild cherry sauce and foraged greens

My final entree for the week long video shoot hunting pigeons. I don’t think it looks like a plate of trash meat.

Pigeons were the first fowl domesticated by man, but we’ve moved a long way from what they used to be: companions used for communication, and sustenance. Only 200 years ago, owning a few breeds of “fancy” pigeons would have been seen as a worthwhile hobby like falconry, as well as fashionable, in the Victorian era.

In our modern world though, especially in America, we do not like pigeons. We hate pigeons. In fact, we dislike the birds so much that we literally wiped our Native American pigeon (passenger pigeon) from the face of the earth. We made them extinct, shot for sport, like the buffalo.

Be honest. What names or feelings come to mind when you think of them? Rats of the sky? Endless producers of poop? A dirty bird naturally inclined for filth that inhabits cities, feeding off the detritus of man, like a cockroach with feathers?

When I see pigeons, I see beautiful, delicious birds with romantic names like squab, palombe, and paloma. I see shiny irridescent feathers, and fast-flying, organized flocks with an almost militaristic, aero-acrobatic talent.

Wild pigeon, squab, or rock dove

Tell me that isn’t a pretty bird.

We used to rely on pigeons. Humans have raised pigeons for meat for thousands of years, taking advantage of the fact they mate for life, and as such, will keep breeding and breeding, making more and more meat, as long as they have a reliable home in a nest or dovecote.

The meat isn’t just good either, it’s excellent. I used to sell a single pigeon breast with a 2oz piece of pork belly for 32$, as the protein component of an entree, because the price, and sourcing of squab (young pigeon) is so high. Make no mistake about it, pigeon is a luxury meat, and a widely available one at that. If you want to buy pigeons to eat through a purveyor and not do the work yourself, prepare to pay 14-23$ a piece.

Pigeons were also used as a message relay system as they have a strong homing instinct, and the best story I’ve heard about one, (via this podcast) was the pigeon Cher Ami in WWI. An army messenger pigeon, despite having his leg blown off and a bullet fragment lodged in his breast, he still delivered his message, which ended up saving a bunch of Allied troops. He was given awarded the Croix de Guerre (war cross) by the French, but eventually died from his wounds.

The WildFed Project 

Last year I got a call about contributing to Daniel Vitalis’s forthcoming hunting show Wildfed. There’s plenty of hunting shows around, but this one focuses one off-the beaten path meat, wild plants, and mushrooms. To me, that’s kind of the real deal, since hunting is more than bone collecting, so I was excited to help organize the shoot and play co-producer for an episode.

We planned the show for a year, with a conference call here and there and discussions on what to hunt, where to hunt, timing, regulations, shooting permits, etc, etc. I wanted to make sure we had some mushooms, and my september is going to be a little crazy, so we settled on August. At that time, the only stuff we might be able to hunt would likely be things using nuissance permits: squirrels, woodchuck, rabbit, and, pigeons.

Lobster Mushrooms Hypomyces lactiflourum

Lobsters would be our quarry for the mushroom element: they’re reliable in Minnesota and Wisconsin during the late summer.

I’d been hunting a few pigeons on the farm here and there, and with all the logistics and planning I could feel coming, pigeons would probably be easier to take than others,a good thing since I still needed to plan a plant and mushroom portion to shoot for the show, and then figure out how everything would work together in a dinner with living breathing people I’d also need to locate.

Being a talent for media productions is one thing, you just show up. Organizing other people, locations, and dealing with seasonal challenges (a special hurdle with wild food) and being talent, is *a lot* of work.

We spent 4 solid days shooting, traveling, hunting, and filming around Wisconsin and Minnesota. It was a lot of fun, a lot of work, and we definitely got some pigeons. As you can see below, the only way to see birds when they come home at night to roost, is to bring a light in the barn. Daniel got a nice shot on-demand below. Action! Pew-pew-pew! 

For the smoothest filming execution, I needed to know what I was cooking with the pigeons beforehand, and I needed it to look good. Now, most people that hunt don’t hunt pigeons. If they do hunt pigeons, they probably don’t eat them, but just toss the birds in the ditch, garbage, or wherever. If someone does eat pigeons, they likely don’t pluck them, so I thought it would be fun to pluck them, and use the carcasses for soup as a first course, and then the breasts for the main. Daniel did some great work plucking all the birds he shot (I’m a terrible shot with a rifle, even a pellet rifle.)

Pigeon and ram bacon brochette

Our pigeon brochette for the dinner. Brined pigeon breasts layered with thin slices of ram bacon.

Aged Pigeon

Fun fact here. The best pigeon I ate all week was not one of the meticulously cleaned ones. We needed a shot of corn in a pigeons crop for match with filming the soup being made, and randomnly, I stumbled on a bird that had been wounded and got away. It died on the floor of one of the barns, and by the time I found it (Friday) it had been sitting in the open for a few days-I don’t know how many, two, three, maybe four.

When we opened it up, it smelled fine, so we ate the breasts. It was one of the best pieces of wild poultry I’ve had, and gives weight to the old sayings about wild birds to the tune of: “Nail a pheasant to the barn by it’s head, when it falls off the nail, it’s ready to cook”.

Lobster Mushroom Stew with Pigeon Broth and Sweet Corn 

The soup was where the mushrooms could come in. Lobsters would be coming up like whoa in August, and we could be smack dab in variety season: I knew I could make a great soup with just pigeon parts, some herbs, and as many mushrooms as we could find.

Eventually we thought, since the pigeons are feasting on corn (the crops are filled with it) and it was the middle of sweet corn season, we’d add some sweet corn too.

WildFed Pigeon, Sweet Corn, and Wild Mushroom Stew (

Wild mushroom, sweet corn, and pigeon stew.

Pigeon Brochette, Sunflower Roulade, Wild Greens and Black Cherry Sauce 

The main course was special, and a lot of work. For the pigeons, I took the breasts, and, to hedge my bet a little, I used a chef trick and put them in a light ham brine for 24 hours.

Afterword, they were prepared en-brochette, on skewers Daniel and I carved from apple branches, with a slice of bacon I made from a lame ram in between each breast to keep them juicy. Finally, the pigeon brochettes were grilled over wood coals, and napped with a sauce wild black cherries, (Prunus serotina).

The next component was wild greens. I made a salad of wild flowers and greens, and what I call a roulade vert (a teaser from my book) essentially a bunch of different wild leaves stuffed and cooked into clean looking grape leaf rolls.

Smoked pigeon brochette with sunflower rolls, wild cherry sauce and foraged greens

My main for the dinner: pigeon and ram bacon broc.ettes with wild cherry sauce, sunflower rolls, and wild greens

I owe a big debt of gratitude to my friend Andrea Gerasimo, who helped me organize the dinner, and to her Mother, Dorothy, for helping take some of the heat off by making apple crisp. I owe you two a lamb dinner.

Related

Previous Post: « Beefsteak Mushroom Relish
Next Post: Grilled Lobster Mushroom Salsa »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. nejat

    September 21, 2019 at 10:33 am

    Dear Sir
    I want to send You some information about native herbs from Aegean dstrict but I don’t know how to get in touch with You.
    Therefore I need Your e-mail
    Please do inform me.
    Prof.Dr.Nejat Onal

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      September 21, 2019 at 12:19 pm

      alanbergo3 AT gmail.com

      Reply
      • Meir Weiss/z

        October 13, 2019 at 6:27 am

        NEVER MISS A POST OR EVENT (IT’S FREE)
        There was an error when subscribing. Please try again.

        Join 16,978 other subscribers

        please sub me to newsletter [email protected]

        broken sign up

        tia

        mw

        Reply
        • Alan Bergo

          October 13, 2019 at 9:47 am

          I’m on it, I think the plugin needed to be updated. Thanks for letting me know.

          Reply
  2. Daniel Vitalis

    November 19, 2019 at 9:59 am

    Alan, great write up on our time there! I miss sitting in that barn hollow taking shots up at the top of the silo! Also missing the roulade vert! So good!

    Thanks for getting me turned on to pigeon hunting, and the many plants and mushrooms you showed us!

    Looking forward to the next culinary adventure!

    ~D

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

James Beard Award Winner

beard award

Subscribe (It’s free)

Forager Chef

Forager Chef

Footer

Instagram

foragerchef

FORAGER | CHEF®
🍄🌱🍖
Author: The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora
James Beard Award ‘22
Host: Field Forest Feast 👇
streaming on @tastemade

Alan Bergo
HALP! I’ve been keeping an eye on two loaded mul HALP! I’ve been keeping an eye on two loaded mulberry trees and both got a bunch of fruit knocked down by the storms and wind. 

If anyone in West WI or around the Twin Cities knows of some trees, (ideally on private property but beggars can’t be choosers) that I could climb and shake with a tarp underneath, shoot me a DM and let’s pick some! 🤙😄

TIA

#throwadogabone #mansquirrel #beattlefruit #mulberries #shakintrees
Lampascioni, or edible hyacinth bulbs are one of t Lampascioni, or edible hyacinth bulbs are one of the more interesting things I’ve eaten. 

These are an ancient wild food traditionally harvested in Southern Italy, especially in Puglia and the Salentine Peninsula, as well as Greece and Crete. I’ve seen at least 6-7 different names for them. 

A couple different species are eaten, but Leopoldia comosa is probably the one I see mentioned the most. They also grow wild in North America. 

The bulbs are toxic raw, but edible after an extended boil. Traditionally they’re preserved in vinegar and oil, pickled, or preserves in other methods using acid and served as antipasti. (Two versions in pic 3). 

They’re one of the most heavily documented traditional wild foods I’ve seen. There’s a few shots of book excerpts here.

The Oxford companion to Italian Food says you can eat them raw-don’t do that. 

Even after pickling, the bulbs are aggressively extremely bitter. Definitely an acquired taste, but one that’s grown on me. 

#traditionalfoods #vampagioli #lampascione #cucinapovera #lampascioni #leopoldiacomosa #foraging
Went to some new spots yesterday looking for poke Went to some new spots yesterday looking for poke sallet and didn’t do too well (I’m at the tip of its range). I did see some feral horseradish though which I don’t see very often. 

Just like wild parsnip, this is the exact same plant you see in the store and garden-just escaped. 

During the growing season the leaves can be good when young. 

They have an aggressive taste bitter enough to scare your loved ones. Excellent in a blend of greens cooked until extra soft, preferably with bacon or similar. 

For reference, you don’t harvest the root while the plant is growing as they’ll be soft and unappealing-do that in the spring or fall. This is essentially the same as when people tell you to harvest in months that have an R in them. 

#amoraciarusticana #foraging #horseradishleaves #horseradish #bittergreens
In Italy chicken of the woods is known as “fungo In Italy chicken of the woods is known as “fungo del carrubo” (carob tree mushroom) as it’s one of the common tree hosts there. 

My favorite, and really the only traditional recipe I’ve found for them so far is simmered in a spicy tomato sauce with hot chile and capers, served with grilled bread. 

Here I add herbs too: fresh leaves of bee balm that are perfect for harvesting right now and have a flavor similar to oregano and thyme. 

Makes a really good side dish or app, especially if you shower it with a handful of pecorino before scooping it up with the bread. 

#chickenofthewoods #fungodelcarrubo #allthemushroomtags #traditionalfoods #beebalm
First of the year 😁. White-pored chicken of t First of the year 😁. 

White-pored chicken of the woods (Laetiporus cincinnatus) are my favorite chicken. 

Superior bug resistance, slightly better flavor + texture. They also stay tender longer compared to their more common yellow-pored cousins. Not a single bug in this guy. 

#treemeat #ifoundfood #foraging #laetiporuscincinnatus #chickenofthewoods
TBT brisket face 💦. Staff meal with @jesseroes TBT brisket face 💦. Staff meal with 
@jesseroesler and crew @campwandawega
📸 @misterberndt 

#staffmeal #brisket #meatsweats #naptime
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Privacy

  • Privacy Policy

Affiliate Disclosure

 I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website. Your purchases help keep this website free and help with the many costs involved with this site as it has continued to grow over the years. 

Copyright © 2022 ·