Squab
food; meat from a young domestic pigeon, typically under four weeks old
Squab is the meat of an immature domestic pigeon, typically under four weeks old. Some authors describe it as tasting like dark chicken.
The word "squab" probably comes from Scandinavia; the Swedish word skvabb means "loose, fat flesh". The term formerly applied to all dove and pigeon species (such as the wood pigeon, the mourning dove, the extinct-in-the-wild socorro dove, and the now extinct passenger pigeon,) and their meat. More recently, squab meat comes almost entirely from domesticated pigeons. The meat of dove and pigeon gamebirds hunted primarily for sport is rarely called "squab".
The practice of domesticating pigeons as livestock may have originated in North Africa; historically, many societies have consumed squabs or pigeons, including ancient Egypt (still common in modern Egypt), Rome, China, India (Northeast), and medieval Europe. It is a familiar meat in Jewish, Arab, and French cuisines. According to the Tanakh, doves are kosher, and they are the only birds that may be used for a korban. (Other kosher birds may be eaten, but not brought as a korban.) Pigeon is also used in Asian cuisines such as Chinese, Assamese, and Indonesian cuisines.
The public source identifies “Squab” as food; meat from a young domestic pigeon, typically under four weeks old. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Squab, food and meat.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7581884. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Squab” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.