Dove Breast Recipe - Peppered Dove Breasts | Hank Shaw (2024)

FAQs

What do you soak dove breasts in? ›

Let your dove breasts soak in milk for two hours to help diminish the gamey taste. After they have soaked, pat them down with a paper towel. Wrap the dove breast in bacon and secure with a toothpick. Sprinkle the breast with garlic powder before putting them on the grill.

Pigeons and doves belong to the same family of birds (Columbidae), which consists of more than 300 species of birds. They share similar features like thick and round bodies, short necks and thin peaks, but doves are generally of a smaller stature while pigeons are often larger and stubbier.

Brine the dove breasts in the refrigerator, for a minimum of 2 hours, or ideally overnight. Remove from the brine and pat dry. With a sharp knife separate the two breast lobes from the breastbone. Place each lobe between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and pound them GENTLY with a meat tenderizer (mallet).

Whether you are cooking wild turkey, deer, gator tail, pheasants, rabbits, waterfowl, squirrels, wild hogs or doves, a good soak in buttermilk does wonders to tenderize, flavorize and remove gaminess.

If you cook a dove breast until it is medium-rare, and I'm talking no more than 130 to 135 degrees, it doesn't taste the least bit funky. It's actually very mild and much like any other lesser-cooked dark-fleshed game meat. If you cook it past medium-rare, it starts to get agamey edge to it.

As long as you cook dove correctly, there's not much to dislike about it. A 3-ounce serving has about 130 calories, 17 grams of protein, and about 7 grams of fat, placing them squarely in line with the other game birds on this list.

A dove is a very lean, dark-meat bird that most wild game chefs will recommend you cook until medium rare in the 130 to 135 F window, similar to duck or goose.

In the wild they will not breed as they are different species. However pigeons and doves can and will mate up if they have no other option. Most hybrids are produced in individual breeding cages so they have no choice but to breed together or just not mate up at all.

There's no difference between a pigeon and a dove in scientific nomenclature, but colloquial English tends to categorize them by size. Something called a dove is generally smaller than something called a pigeon, but that's not always the case. A common pigeon, for example, is called both a rock dove and a rock pigeon.

Some doves will mate for life while others will only pair up for the season. In some cases if their pair passes away it is believed that these doves are aware of their loss and mourn the death of their pair.

How to get the gamey taste out of dove? ›

The distinct game flavor of either birds or animals will be milder after soaking the meat overnight in the refrigerator in either a salt or vinegar solution.

Ginger is a common ingredient in marinades thanks to its uniquely spicy flavour and the fact that it contains a 'proteolytic' enzyme that naturally breaks down meat protein. Method: Add slices of ginger or ginger pulp to the surface of the beef and leave for a minimum of 2 hours.

The distinct game flavor of either birds or animals will be milder after soaking the meat overnight in the refrigerator in either a salt or vinegar solution.

Mourning doves don't do well without regular water. Although they only drink once or twice a day, they take in the full amount of water they will need for the day very quickly. They prefer ponds, pools or birdbaths that are at ground level and that have very little plant life around them.

The results of this study indicate that dove breasts packaged in vacuumized polyethylene bags and frozen for 5 months were superior to those wrapped in aluminum foil or those frozen in water and that soaking meat before freezing did not improve it.