Wood Pigeon Burgers

[Cheese Mechanic]

Anyone tried making any? Recipes even?

[21TonyK]

Not come across anything like that and not really convinced it would work. You'd have to mince the meat so the final texture would be more of a paste and there's no fat to bind.

Plus anything other than rare pigeon (IMO) is pretty vile. I think you would end up with something with the texture of pate, hot and with a hint of pigeon.

Personally, if I had enough pigeons to make burgers I'd be freezing the breasts and confit the legs, strip the meat and make some nice tortellini.

[lauda]

I'd be inclined to agree with Tony on this one. There's probably a very good reason you've never seen a pigeon burger anywhere before!

[ManFromDelmonte]

You don't have to mince it do you? Chicken burgers are not made of minced chicken (not normally anyway).

Having said that, I still think it is a crap idea .

[Cheese Mechanic]

That settles that then

[Mobile Chicane]

You'd need a few wood pigeon for a decent sized burger I think.

The breasts are the only bit on the bird worth bothering with and they're tiny. Also very lean.

With a woodie I just cut off the breasts, chuck the rest of the bird out for the foxes, and shallow fry the breasts in butter for a minute or two each side.

Slice and serve over a small salad with the pan juices with some frazzled bacon:

[Checkmate]

I have a recipe in my "Game and Fish Cookbook" from the game conservancy trust.

"Pigieburgers.

2 Pigeon breasts
50-75g (2-3oz) belly pork
1/2 small onion
a few fresh herbs
a little olive oil
salt and pepper

Coarsely mince the pigeon breasts and belly pork and mix in the finely chopped onion and mixed herbs - alternatively pass the four ingredients through the mincer. Add a little oil and season well. Mix thoroughly. Form into burgers and fry in a little olive oil until just cooked - about 2-3 minutes each side.
Serve in a bap with tomato salsa.
Makes 2 burgers.
(Works well with pheasant breasts too)"

Not tried them yet myself, but sounds pretty good to me. The fat required from the belly pork, and the flavour from the pigeon. Don't see why it wouldn't work well.
That said, the last half dozen I have shot I fried the breasts off quickly in a pan, in strips, added oyster mushrooms, redcurrant jelly, soy, Lea & Perrins, S&P, then a little cream, and tipped it all on to some decent buttered toast. Amazing.
Or as MC has said above, also a great way of serving pigeon.

[Cheese Mechanic]

Thanks for that, the pigeon/beely pork mix sounds a winner.

Fact is, I'm getting loused out with them in my back garden, trying to scoff everything I put out for more welcome visitors.

So tempted to get out the air rifle, may as well make use of what I shoot, thus the idea.

[227bhp]

Cheese Mechanic said:

Thanks for that, the pigeon/beely pork mix sounds a winner.

Fact is, I'm getting loused out with them in my back garden, trying to scoff everything I put out for more welcome visitors.

So tempted to get out the air rifle, may as well make use of what I shoot, thus the idea.

I had the same issue, the local butcher wasn't interested so if I don't pull out the breast and fry 'em up the foxes get them.
Why complicate matters by making burgers.....

[Evoluzione]

Sorry it's not burgers, but I shot a couple of these rodents the other day so had to get busy. I'd never cut up a bird so Googled it and came across a bloke called Scott Rea on Youtube. I followed his instructions on getting the breasts out then found and followed his recipe to cook them also.
He's got a whole channel on there of that kind of thing, this one used my homegrown/made shallots and cider plus peas, garlic, mustard, lardons, cream etc





Lovely

[Tickle]

That looks very nice, wood pigeon is so abundant yet so few eat it.