Rhyd6 wrote:We've been following Masterchef on TV and I can't help but notice how often pigeon features on the menu. Yesterday it was one of the top dishes at a michelin starred London restaurant. Today friends and I were discussing this and we all agreed that we'd be mortified if we had to dish up pigeon as a main meal. We all ate plenty during the war but now!!! I often shoot pigeon and rabbit but it all end up as food for the cats and dogs, I certainly wouldn't touch it and the thought of serving it to guests is a definite no no, but it would seem that people who go to posh restaurants are willing to pay a fortune to eat food that here we'd only give to the animals. Strange world. R6
I suppose it depends upon perspective. As a child [late 60-late 70s] my father would go and rough-shoot on local farms. For the likes of pigeons and rabbits, and they all ended in the pot, gorgeous! He was also was invited to the annual local round of organised game-shoots; pheasants, partridges and so on. I was routinely called to assist with the plucking duty
AFAIR most of it ended up in stews or casseroles, and it was absolutely delicious. That was a very tough era for the economy, so food of that quality on the table was a heck of a treat/privilege to have access to.
Fast-forward and society has changed. Gun ownership [legal] is waaay lower. Shooting/hunting as a whole has become rather taboo. I imagine most of the above-mentioned game is not possible to farm, in the manner in which say salmon is farmed. And so game is now something that is available to the rich and the lucky few others. Additionally society has become extremely squeamish. It seems the younger generation tend not to favour meat if it resembles something that once lived, or much worse if served with two or more limbs still attached, and even worse if it has more flavour than chicken. There's a parallel in how venison is not a mainstream dish, perhaps because it can have quite a strong gamey flavour. Same with how most lamb these days appears to be young 'spring' lamb, rather than older more pungent mutton. And the less bones and 'work' involved between plate and mouth the better. But the game is no less healthy and delicious than it always was, and people who know and can afford it are willing to pay for it.
gryffon wrote: I guess posh restaurants have to try and offer "new" things that you wouldn't eat elsewhere. I've never had pigeon in my life. Would probably try it. Had ostrich, kangaroo, zebra...
Not very long ago, mangetout was something Kenyan farmers fed to their cattle. Now it is on every supermarket shelf. They laugh that Europeans eat it.
But game isn't 'new' at all. I think it went out of fashion, like real ale did, but now it's back though at a price. Pigeon is absolutely delicious IMO.
Kenyan farmers fed mange-tout to cattle? Is that true? Just it doesn't strike me as the kind of plant that would be native to East Africa. I realise a lot is grown there these days but what with their climate, lower cost-base, and air-freight then they can grow it cheaply for export. Back in the era I mentioned above my father had a big vegetable patch and grew all our veg except for potatoes. What are now branded as Mange-tou [French for eat-all, i.e. unlike regular garden peas] were previously known as sugar-snap peas, and my father grew those too.