From Hunted Game to Farmed Birds: Wild Meats on the Table

Wild Boar is the hunted ancestor of most domestic pig breeds. This entry records a species native to Eurasia and North Africa that has been hunted as big game for millennia, and it notes that it describes the animal as a hunted and domestication source rather than inventing a cooking profile.

Pheasant is the clearest example of a bird that reaches the table through hunting and game farming rather than large-scale commercial husbandry. The entry describes the common pheasant as native to Asia and the extreme southeast of Europe and introduced worldwide, chiefly as a game bird, and as one of the most hunted birds in the world.

Bison was the principal food of the Indigenous peoples of the North American Plains, who used nearly every part of the animal. The entry says the meat tastes similar to beef but is lower in fat and cholesterol and higher in protein, and that Canadian farming grew from 45,235 animals in a 1996 census to 195,728 by 2006.

Quail is where wild fowl and farm bird meet. The entry says many of the larger species are farm raised for table food or eggs and also hunted on game farms or in the wild, and that 40 million quail were produced in the United States alone in 2007.

Rabbit has been hunted since the Last Glacial Maximum and is now one of the easiest animals to breed for meat. The entry puts world production at roughly 2 million tons a year from about 1.2 billion rabbits, and names Moroccan tajines with raisins and almonds among the dishes that use it.

Guinea Fowl is an African bird that has been carried well beyond its home. The entry describes the helmeted guinea fowl as introduced to East Africa, South America, the West Indies, the United States, Britain and India, with meat that is moist, firmer and leaner than chicken and a slight gamey flavor.

Turkey is a New World bird that crossed the Atlantic as a domesticated food animal. The entry says Indigenous peoples domesticated the North American wild turkey about two thousand years ago in Mexico, and that the domesticated bird later spread to Eurasia through trade during the Columbian exchange.

Goose has long been raised as poultry, and the entry describes true geese in the genera Anser and Branta as monogamous birds that form permanent pairs. It is a reminder that this ingredient is a biological entry first, and it gives no production or consumption figures.

Foie Gras shows a goose or duck turned into a protected specialty. The entry says the force-feeding technique dates to around 2500 BC among the ancient Egyptians, that French law counts the food as part of the national gastronomic heritage, and that several countries restrict or ban it on animal welfare grounds.

Ostrich is the largest living bird and is now farmed commercially for meat, leather, feathers, eggs and fat-derived oil. The entry says South Africa produces about 70 percent of ostrich products, centered on the town of Oudtshoorn.

Mutton closes the path with a meat whose popularity has faded. The entry defines it as meat from older sheep, stronger in flavor and tougher than lamb, and notes that the United Kingdom has run a Mutton Renaissance Campaign to bring it back.