Pigeon

Pigeon

Appears in
Cuisine Foundations
Cuisine Foundations

By Le Cordon Bleu

Published 2010

  • About

Family: Cocumbidae

Pigeons come from the same family as doves. In fact, it is believed that all the pigeons and doves that roam the earth today, including our city friends the rock pigeons, descend from the Brittany rock dove. The rock pigeon is the world’s most domesticated bird—evidence suggests that the domestication of pigeons began between 5,000 and 10,000 years ago.

All species of pigeons are edible and they are not really differentiated between once they are on the table. However, there is a distinction between wild and domesticated pigeon, the former having a denser, more flavorful flesh than the latter. The term squab (pigeonneaux in French) designates a pigeon that is too young to fly.