Watch: Cold-smoked pigeon sashimi recipe

Time Well Spent June 15, 2022

Tim Maddams is in the hide bagging a pigeon (or two) so he can show you how to make cold-smoked sashimi – a much more sustainable alternative to tuna or salmon…

KIT BAG
Clothing and footwear – Sasta, Crispi and Woolpower, distributed by Outwear Ltd
Optics – Swarovski Optik
Hot/cold digital smoker – Bradley Smoker

About this video
In episode 2 of Tim’s Wild Kitchen on Shooting & Country TV, it’s sustainable “sky tuna” pigeon sashimi on the menu, as Tim takes one of the least sustainable foods you can eat (tuna sashimi) and makes it into one of the most sustainable by replacing the tuna with pigeon!
A by-product of the abundant food supply created by modern agriculture, pigeons are shot to protect the crops grown to make your bread, cereal, whiskey and cooking oils. Wild and seriously abundant in the UK, with rich, dark meat, they provide an ideal replacement for the tuna and salmon traditionally used in sashimi. This is sashimi you can enjoy guilt free – no dolphins or endangered tuna were harmed in the making!
Tim heads out for a blustery morning in the pigeon hide (with questionable success), then cold smokes the pigeon breasts to perfection, creates an easy soy drizzle, and speed-garnishes to create a recipe that would make the ideal dinner party starter, but that takes less than five minutes to assemble! Winning! Quick, delicious, sustainable… what’s not to like?

The series
Over the next six months, chef Tim Maddams of River Cottage fame will be scampering about Scotland where he lives, hunting, shooting, fishing and foraging wild things to take back to his kitchen, smoke and cook. If you are interested in wild food cooking, foraging, smoking meat, and sustainable food, you’re in the right place.
All produce featured in this series has been gathered locally and is truly sustainable. The emphasis is on wild meat hunting and cooking, and all the meat will be hot or cold smoked prior to cooking. As the series progresses, we will be wild fishing and foraging and showing you just what can be done with wild game meat… if you know how!

Charity
This series is raising awareness for The Country Food Trust, a charity founded in 2015 with the sole aim of feeding people in need. They do so by producing game-based ready meals which they distribute to charities that hand out food to people in need. They also buy and provide meats of all types and donate it to charities that cook for people in need.
Tim Maddams is their Consultant Chef and has developed their three ready meals: Venison Bolognese, Pheasant Casserole and Pheasant Curry. Since inception The Country Food Trust have delivered more than 2,000,000 meals.
For more information and to donate, please click here