Pigeon pie is a savoury

game pie Game pie is a form of meat pie featuring game. The dish dates from Roman times when the main ingredients were wild birds and animals such as partridge, pheasant, deer, and hare. The pies reached their most elaborate form in Victorian England, wit ...

made of

pigeon Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

meat and various other ingredients traditional to

French cuisine French cuisine () is the cooking traditions and practices from France. It has been influenced over the centuries by the many surrounding cultures of Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium, in addition to the food traditions of the re ...

and present in other European cuisines. It has been eaten at least as early as 1670 in French cuisine. Similar dishes to pigeon pie exist in other cultures. In

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

, a version made with a thin,

phyllo Filo or phyllo is a very thin unleavened dough used for making pastries such as baklava and börek in Middle Eastern and Balkan cuisines. Filo-based pastries are made by layering many sheets of filo brushed with oil or butter; the pastry is the ...

-like pastry crust is called bastila. Early versions of the traditional Canadian dish of

tourtière Tourtière (, ) is a French Canadian meat pie dish originating from the province of Quebec, usually made with minced pork, veal or beef and potatoes. Wild game is sometimes used. It is a traditional part of the Christmas ''réveillon'' and New ...

, currently made with meats such as pork or beef, were probably made of pigeon, likely the now extinct

passenger pigeon The passenger pigeon or wild pigeon (''Ectopistes migratorius'') is an extinct species of pigeon that was endemic to North America. Its common name is derived from the French word ''passager'', meaning "passing by", due to the migratory habits ...

Historical record

An early recipe for pigeon pie was given in ''

A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye ''A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye'' is a book of recipes, seasons for meat and listing of courses and dishes for service on fish days and non-fish days written for women running their own households by an unknown author.Oxford, p. 3 The text was pu ...

'', published in London in 1575. James Hart, a Scottish physician, wrote in 1633 that pigeon pies were usually served with far too much pepper.

Joan Thirsk Irene Joan Thirsk, (''née'' Watkins; 19 June 1922 – 3 October 2013) was a British economic and social historian, specialising in the history of agriculture. She was the leading British early modern agrarian historian of her era, as well as ...

, ''Food in Early Modern England'' (London, 2007), p. 321. The diary of

Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mariti ...

recounts his attendance at a dinner party on May 24, 1667, in Islington, London, where the guests "dined upon nothing but pigeon-pyes". Cookery books of the seventeenth century show that pigeons were 'well spiced with nutmegs, cloves, pepper and salt, and sealed in butter within the cold pie, which could then be kept for several days. But with the advent of potting (preserving food, especially meat or fish, in a sealed pot or jar) pies of this type became less common'. Records in the

British National Archives The National Archives (TNA, cy, Yr Archifau Cenedlaethol) is a non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Its parent department is the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sp ...

show that pigeon pie was a menu item at

Kew Palace Kew Palace is a British royal palace within the grounds of Kew Gardens on the banks of the River Thames. Originally a large complex, few elements of it survive. Dating to 1631 but built atop the undercroft of an earlier building, the main surv ...

during the reign of

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

. For the working classes however, without access to the

dovecotes A dovecote or dovecot , doocot ( Scots) or columbarium is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pige ...

of the

gentry Gentry (from Old French ''genterie'', from ''gentil'', "high-born, noble") are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. Word similar to gentle imple and decentfamilies ''Gentry'', in its widest ...

, pigeon pie was a rare treat. In 1879, the ''

British Medical Journal ''The BMJ'' is a weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal, published by the trade union the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. Origi ...

'' reported a group of sailors aboard the Troop ship were poisoned by a bad pigeon pie which spawned an Admiralty investigation. Before the late 19th century in the United States, pigeon pie was a common dish. Archival records show that pigeon pie was a traditional dish for the American holiday of

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...

, though is currently uncommon at Thanksgiving meals. Similarly, during the earlier part of the 19th century pigeon pie was a common Christmas meal in Detroit, but later was replaced by other meats. The reviewers in ''

The Pacific Northwest Quarterly ''Pacific Northwest Quarterly'' (commonly referred to as ''PNQ'') is a peer-reviewed academic journal of history that publishes scholarship relating to the Pacific Northwest of the United States, including Alaska, and adjacent areas of western Can ...

'' of the 1976 ''The Homestead Cookbook'' edited by Victoria Paul, noted that without publications of cookbooks like it, the traditional dish of pigeon pie would become culturally extinct in the United States. In Spain, pigeon eating was a common practice as early as the 14th century under the 1379

Order of the Pigeon The Order of the Dove (, meaning Order of the Pigeon, as the Spanish word ''paloma is'' used to refer both doves and pigeons), was a short lived military order which lasted only for a year. It was created by King Juan I of Castile in 1379 to defend ...

created by King

Juan I of Castile John I ( es, Juan I; 24 August 1358 – 9 October 1390) was King of Castile and León from 1379 until 1390. He was the son of Henry II and of his wife Juana Manuel of Castile. Biography His first marriage, to Eleanor of Aragon on 18 June 1375, ...

. The order ate pigeon regularly at their order banquets. In 1611, a recipe book by the royal chef at the court of

Philip III of Spain Philip III ( es, Felipe III; 14 April 1578 – 31 March 1621) was King of Spain. As Philip II, he was also King of Portugal, Naples, Sicily and Sardinia and Duke of Milan from 1598 until his death in 1621. A member of the House of Habsburg, Phi ...

included recipes for pigeon pie. Similarly, a chef at a university residence hall in Spain included recipes for pigeon pies in his 1607 collection of recipes.

Historical record

See also

References

Further reading