forager
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woody recipoesBeen a while since i posted anything here due to lack of interest from participants. Any way am at home today with some mystery bug and feeling like pants. When i should be out there earning a living picking wild food for my wild food box scheme.
Back to woodies.........i have been experimenting with several cures for pigeon breasts and think i have come up with a winner.
Any one else tried curing breasts.........? 
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Quixote
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Lack of response doesn't necessarily mean lack of interest, Forager. I know I personally have little to add to your posts as my knowledge of fungi & berries is lacking in the extreme, but I do enjoy reading your posts! 
As for woodies? I smoke mine most of the time, and tend to brine them for a couple of hours before they go into the cold smoker. They go into a brine of 1lb coarse salt, and 1/2 lb brown sugar to a gallon of warm water (I sometimes add red wine to the brine, along with whichever herbs & spices take my fancy too) I wonder if a 'dry-brine' of just salt, sugar and spices would result in a good enough cure to eat 'as-is' though? Worth an experiment or two, I would've thought
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Kate
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I echo what Q's said. I'm just the same and can't add anything but I love your posts so please don't stop !
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Gribbie
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What they said
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Slave
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And me
As for pigeon breasts, I like mine split in half and just shown a very hot pan. I'm always suprised how many people turn their nose up at eating them when they are just scrummy.
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Quixote
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I've always described them as being between beef and a very mild liver.
I honestly can't imagine why people wouldn't want to eat more of them............but then the appreciation of truly good food in this country has a long long way to go before the British in general can be considered 'connosseuirs' 
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Jonty
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| Quixote wrote: | I've always described them as being between beef and a very mild liver.
I honestly can't imagine why people wouldn't want to eat more of them............but then the appreciation of truly good food in this country has a long long way to go before the British in general can be considered 'connosseuirs' |
I'm sure that the same can be said for virtually every country where people don't exist on subsistence farming/gathering and have a choice in what they eat Q. Surely there are Gourmands and food heathens in every civilisation. Take the sublime Haggis and a deep fried pizza for example In a way, I'm glad that the queue outside mcdonalds is a mile long but I can always get a table at any of the really great restaurnts we have around here.
As for that pigeon, loverly, I'll be getting some deeks for when the SGC arrives!!
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Snorg
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| Jonty wrote: |
As for that pigeon, loverly, I'll be getting some deeks for when the SGC arrives!! |
What are 'deeks' is it a kind of cartridge?
I've never eaten pigeon, but I was going to buy a couple this week to see what they are like.
There are plenty of wood pigeon round here and I was thinking I might plug a few with an air gun. That should do the trick, shouldn't it? I don't need no poncy shotgun / licenses etc, do I.... ? 
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Quixote
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'Deeks' ='Decoys', Snorg. Plastc shell decoys designed to allow the shooter to place a decoy pattern out on identified feeding grounds to draw birds into the area. It's possible to take some very large bags of pigeon this way.................but an airgun will take them out too. Your fieldcraft skills better be top-notch though, as the beggars can spot you from miles off!!!
And Jonty? What on earth would you have against 'deep-fried pizza'? 
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GB
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Do pigeons recognized people or guns as a threat? They dont seem bothered when the kids and I get out for a walk but are noted as five star difficult shooting and there is lots of shooting in the area.
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Jonty
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| GB wrote: | | Do pigeons recognized people or guns as a threat? They dont seem bothered when the kids and I get out for a walk but are noted as five star difficult shooting and there is lots of shooting in the area. |
Feral pigeons don't seem to bothered by people as we're all to aware of. But woodpigeons are very cautious. They tend to flight at the merest hint of suspicion. They get their reputation as a good quarry as they will turn away or avoid decoy patterns that don't face the right direction, don't match the layout that the pigeon would take on that particular day in that particular day, or even, if there's a bead of rain or dew on one of the plastic decoys that wouldn't show up on a real bird. So generally, to get them close enough in to bag, you've got to be getting your fieldcraft/technique right.
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Jonty
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| Quixote wrote: | .................but an airgun will take them out too. Your fieldcraft skills better be top-notch though, as the beggars can spot you from miles off!!!
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I agree, if you get one with an airgun, you're certainly doing the sneaky beaky bit right.
Just remember though, even with an airgun, take Deerstalker's advice, watch your backstop!
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Jonty
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| Quixote wrote: |
And Jonty? What on earth would you have against 'deep-fried pizza'?
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Absolutely nothing old chap, just don't expect me to eat one!
How do you put multiple quotes into the same post, I'm sat here aiming for a promotionwith the amount of posts I'm writing.
And before this goes too astray, back to woodpigeon recipes....
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Snorg
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| Quixote wrote: | | .................but an airgun will take them out too. Your fieldcraft skills better be top-notch though, as the beggars can spot you from miles off!!! |
| Jonty wrote: |
I agree, if you get one with an airgun, you're certainly doing the sneaky beaky bit right.
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Well I seem to see enough of them, but I suppose I can bet my bottom dollar that they will all suddenly disappear once I get a gun in my hands!
I'm looking forwards to tasting them later this week! 
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pepperami
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hopefully i will have a few woodies in the next few weeks as i`ve just got a new permission to shoot
i just breast mine and have a couple of medalions from each bird..
could this be the new long term storage food= pigeon breast jerky???
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Graham The Builder
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I love wood pigeon. I pluck, then crown joint them to give you a very presentable joint of meat ready for the oven. Q is spot on when he says that Pigeon is a cross between beef and mild liver. I have used pigeon in salads (strips of the meat flash fried), curries, roasts and BBQ'ed. It is also the easiest bird to pluck which makes things easy when you have got a dozen or more sat at your feet ready to be dealt with.
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