Pigeon breast

If you're my girlfriend, this post starts off on a positive note. Firstly she loves pigeon, and secondly the sirloin from last time hasn't completely trashed her camera lens. On the downside I've just found a Chinese restaurant I'd like to go to that serves duck feet and fish lips, both of which she's stoutly refusing to eat. Kids eh??

Back to this culinary adventure and apart from the mushrooms, it was all borne from a good forage through the freezer which was just as well as there's still a week until payday.

We'd bought these pigeon breasts for Christmas as part of that 'we couldn't possibly do without this' process that leaves you with a fridge full of ostrich and lingonberries. They ended up in the freezer but it gave us a Sunday lunch for nothing and that's great considering it's nearing the end of the month.

I'll be a bit sparing with the words this time as it's a similar process to the previous posts, plus we're both thick with colds and feel like death warmed up, without the warmed up part.

Vital statistics : 56 degrees for 20 minutes (see below)

Having had pigeon at restaurants, I've thought they've been cooked at a low temperature so I took a guess at 56 for these in the hope of getting them pink. It was the kitchen equivalent of Wetherspoons - you pays your money, makes your choice and wait to see if something edible comes out.

On the plus side, at least the bag's the right length this time.

The next photo is what you get if you've almost destroyed you camera last time and choose to stand some distance away this time. If you're going to fry pigeon at high temperature, it's a bit like lamb - it browns really quickly. I did these in oil and butter for 15 seconds one side and 10 the other and still got good colour.

For some reason mine came out looking like mushrooms. No problem there - all the benefits of pigeon with all the benefits of mushrooms. Bonus.

And herein lies the problem. If you Google 'sous vide pigeon breast', you'll get a whole bunch of rose-hued food porn but ours turned out darker. It wasn't overcooked or dry - it was lovely - but it wasn't the riot of fuchsia I was trying to achieve.

Now up to this point, all of my posts end with 'definitely one to do again', a phrase I'm trying not to use again and in this instance I don't have to because I wouldn't. I'm pretty sure the frying didn't do it because of the short times involved so either they were raised or aged in a way that they'd never be pink or I need to drop the temperature in future. Don't get me wrong, they were lovely but there's improvements on the table and I'll give them another go soon. For your benefit, if you cook them at 56, this is what you get which may or may not be your bag.

And with that we're into new territory - a post that needs re-doing with a different temperature. Next time we've got some pigeon breasts, we'll post an update and see if we can get closer to perfection.