To eat boiled crow

To eat boiled crow is to be proven wrong after having strongly expressed your opinion. It is most likely an Americanization of the English "To eat humble pie". The English phrase is something of of a pun — "umbles" were the intestines and other unsavories of a deer. Pies made of this were known to be served to those of lesser class who did not eat at the king's/lord's/governor's table.

In North America the expression is simply to eat crow.

At any rate, crow seems to be the distasteful meat of choice because it's stringy, it's carrion meat, and, apparently, just plain doesn't taste good. An old tale passed around amongst hunters advises that, if you run out of food while alone in the woods, catch a crow, put it in a pot with a boot, boil it for a week, and then eat the boot.

Interestingly, another dish likely to be served with humble pie is rook pie. Rooks, being closely related to crows, probably taste about the same. This may be another clue as to how humble pie became boiled crow.