A squab is a young domestic pigeon, usually less than four weeks old, raised specifically for eating. Before you say “eww,” remember that people around the world eat many different birds: chicken, turkey, duck, quail, and yes, squab. In fine restaurants, squab appears on menus as a delicacy, prized for its tender, flavorful dark meat.

Squab comes from raising pigeons in controlled environments called squab houses or pigeon lofts, where farmers breed them specifically for food, just as chicken farmers raise chickens. This is different from the wild pigeons you see in parks. Squab farming has existed for thousands of years. Ancient Egyptians and Romans raised squab, and it remained popular in European and American cooking well into the 1900s.

Today squab is less common than chicken or turkey but still appears in upscale restaurants and certain cultural cuisines. The birds are harvested young because the meat becomes tougher as pigeons mature and start flying. While it might sound strange if you've only thought of pigeons as city birds, squab shows how humans have domesticated and raised birds for food throughout history, turning wild species into reliable food sources.