Sunday, October 12, 2008

Grouse hunting

I went to hunting camp this weekend. Mostly just for a camp out but I like to hunt for ruffed grouse. They are like wild chickens. And they taste just like chicken. I know people always say that but these things really sort of do... I got one grouse and that's all I wanted. I use an old LeFever Nitro Special .410 double barrel shotgun that was given to me as a birthday present from my dad. Pretty rare old shotgun and perfect for grouse as it won't destroy them. I'm going to eat my grouse tomorrow night and I usually only have this meal once a year. Here's how I cook them.

First I breast the bird. I won't go into detail about that, but you end up with the breast back and ribs only, no wings and no legs. You can save and eat the legs but I sort of feel like Survivorman if I do that. They aren't big like chicken legs. The breast is what you eat. Ruffed Grouse breast is white meat. I put the breast in salt water over night. It sort of cures and cleans it and removes the gamey taste. Then I take it out of that and fillet the breasts. I marinade them in a mixture of olive oil garlic Italian parsley and fresh lemon juice for a couple of hours in the fridge. Then I quickly saute it in olive oil and a little dry white wine. I've tried a lot of different ways to cook grouse but this is best, and it's really good.

3 comments:

Diane Lowe said...

That is a pretty stand of trees! :)

That grouse recipe sounds good. I'll have to try it with chicken sometime. . .

I've been thinking if I'm still in my current apartment next summer I'll have a little garden on my patio. Set out some Basil and Garlic . . .maybe some tomatoes and parsley too.

don said...

If you do it with chicken you can cook it on the grill. It's good that way. The oil causes it to flame but also sort of keeps it from burning.

You can't put grouse on the grill because it will take too long too cook and get tough. You have to cook it fast in a pan.

Jules said...

... and he cooks too...

wow!