Pigeon pie facts for kids
Pigeon pie with beetroot
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| Course | Main |
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| Place of origin | France |
| Main ingredients | Pigeon |
Pigeon pie is a tasty dish made with pigeon meat baked inside a pastry crust. It's a type of savoury pie, which means it's not sweet. This dish has been enjoyed for a very long time, especially in France and other parts of Europe. It's like a meaty, delicious surprise inside a pastry!
Other countries have similar pies. For example, in Morocco, there's a dish called bastila. It uses a very thin, flaky pastry, a bit like phyllo dough. Long ago in Canada, a traditional meat pie called tourtière might have been made with pigeon meat. This was likely from the passenger pigeon, which is now extinct.
Contents
History of Pigeon Pie
Pigeon pie has a long and interesting history. People have been making and eating these pies for hundreds of years!
Early Recipes and Mentions
One of the first known recipes for pigeon pie appeared in a cookbook called A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye. This book was published in London in 1575. Imagine eating a dish that has a recipe from over 400 years ago!
In 1633, a Scottish doctor named James Hart wrote about pigeon pies. He mentioned that they often had too much pepper. It seems people really liked their spices back then!
Famous Dinners and Royal Meals
The famous diarist Samuel Pepys wrote about eating pigeon pies. On May 24, 1667, he attended a dinner party in London. The guests ate "nothing but pigeon-pyes." It must have been a very special meal!
Cookbooks from the 1600s show how these pies were made. Pigeons were seasoned with spices like nutmeg, cloves, pepper, and salt. They were then baked in butter inside a cold pie crust. These pies could be kept for several days.
Records from the British National Archives show that pigeon pie was served at Kew Palace. This was during the time of King George III. So, even kings enjoyed this dish!
Pigeon Pie for Everyone
For most people, especially working families, pigeon pie was a rare treat. Only wealthy people had dovecotes. These were special buildings where pigeons were kept. This meant they had easy access to pigeon meat.
Pigeon Pie in the United States
Before the late 1800s, pigeon pie was a common dish in the United States. Old records show it was a traditional meal for Thanksgiving. Today, it's very uncommon to find pigeon pie at Thanksgiving dinners.
Similarly, in the early 1800s, pigeon pie was a popular Christmas meal in Detroit. But over time, other meats became more popular for holiday meals.
Some people worried that pigeon pie would disappear from American culture. In 1976, a book called The Homestead Cookbook helped keep the tradition alive.
Pigeon Pie in Spain
In Spain, eating pigeon was common as early as the 1300s. In 1379, King Juan I of Castile created a special group called the Order of the Pigeon. Members of this order regularly ate pigeon at their banquets.
In 1611, a royal chef for Philip III of Spain included recipes for pigeon pie in his cookbook. Another chef at a Spanish university also had pigeon pie recipes in his collection from 1607. This shows how popular pigeon pie was in Spain centuries ago.
