PALOMA ZURITA, A POPULAR MEMBER OF THE DOVE FAMILY IN SPAIN

Paloma Zurita
Photo from: José María Paraíso Hernández

Cat xixell, L.Columba oenas, Eng stock dove. It is the smallest of the most common members of the pigeon family found on the Iberian Peninsula. Avenzoar described the meat as hot and dry with a gentle consistency. It is gentler, he maintained, than that of the sand grouse and the rock pigeon. The meat, he continued, is abundant in humid climates but it possesses the peculiarity of producing headaches. The necks and heads of pigeons cause the same. Sent Soví explains they should be cooked over a hot fire or coal. [Anón/Grewe. 1982: XVIIII:73: Apè III:240; and Ibn Zuhr/García Sánchez. 1992:51]

For the Medieval Spanish Chef’s recipes including doves see blogs titled: Ánade published September 26, 2011; Paloma published December 7, 2016; Choca perdiz published December 28, 2012 and Paloma torcaz published December 9, 2016.