Brooks Tinsley shooting an M2 accepts a dove from his lab, Coal in a Mississippi dove field.
If asked the purpose of dove hunting, a non-hunter might reply that it is to kill doves. Actually, it’s not. If the object was just birds for the table, logically the cheapest, easiest, most practical method of achieving this end would be to buy a commercially raised, professionally cleaned, pan-ready chicken for about $6. This saves the bother of keeping and training bird dogs, buying hunting licenses and bird stamps, risking snakebite, laying out for guns and shells, breaking teeth from biting into pellets and paying for the hundred fringe items that probably add up to costing the dove hunter in the range of $50 per ounce for dove meat.
And if the object was purely dead doves why do dove hunters choose to spend the money, watch and wait for hours all for possibly taking a limit of birds on the wing, while refusing to murder a dove on the ground or sitting in a tree?
To sum it up, the fun includes the whole experience of wingshooting from beginning to end, and when you’re done the payoff is you get to enjoy one of the most delectable meats you can imagine. In my honest opinion (“IMHO” in forum-speak), dove breasts, which are dark, moist and succulent, provide one of the tastiest wild game table fares you’ll ever put in your mouth.
Doves are quite small relative to other game birds and most hunters just “pop” the breast out of the bird. It’s simple and easy—begin by cutting off the wings at the body and then “lift” the complete breast-on-bone off the carcass by placing your thumb under the bottom of the breast bone and pushing through the skin. This allows you to separate the breast from the carcass. A portion of skin and feathers usually remains attached to the breast meat, which can be easily pulled off leaving the meat clean and feather-free. Once you’ve cleaned all your dove breasts of skin and feathers, soak them in a bowl of salty water overnight in the fridge. This will draw out the blood and dissolve blood clots.
Dove breasts do not have any similarity in taste or moistness to supermarket chicken breasts, but I think this is a positive attribute of the meat. Doves are mostly seedeaters and that combined with frequent flight means there is little or no fat on the meat. This gives dove breasts a unique taste that is in no way gamey. If anything, doves offer a very pleasing taste that many consider better than most other game birds.
Many consider dove breast the best eating gamebird there is.
The most popular cooking method includes wrapping them in bacon and grilling them shish kebab-style or lightly coating them with flour and pan-frying them in olive oil or bacon grease. If you like it spicy, you can add a slice of jalapeno pepper placed between the bacon and the breast. Four on-bone dove breasts are just right for each delicious serving.
Savor and enjoy!
Pithy Quotes from the Old-timers:
“If a game bird is judged by the relative speed of getaway, and erratic line of flight, then the dove, with his brilliant speed and his dipping, rolling flight, takes the highest honors here.”
Byron Dalrymple, Doves and Dove Shooting, 1949
“What strange reasoning has placed this wondrous feathered projectile below his inferior rivals surpasseth all understanding, unless it may be due to plain ignorance.”
Jules Ashlock, Sports Afield, prior to 1945
“These graceful gray fellows tower over the timid ground dwellers just as clearly as the trout out-glamours the catfish, or the tarpon the shark.”
Jules Ashlock, Sports Afield, prior to 1945
“I can bring home about twice as many ducks for each box of shells as I can doves.”
Jack O’Connor, Hunting in the Southwest
“You must hold right, otherwise you go home light in both shells and birds. However, one is likely to go home light in both respects, no matter how cute the hold.”
Major Charles Askin, Sports Afield, prior to 1945
Makes complete sense to me! Cost is not the point here. It IS the experience that makes it worth the effort. Love the recipe!