doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com How long can you freeze a spruce grouse?

There are 9 species of grouse native to the US.
I’ve eaten them all.
Since I like light meat and dark meat, I rate blues and sharp tails approximately equivalently.

Blues, get the slight edge over a ruffed grouse because they’re bigger. Meat’s about the same though.

Of the sharptails, of which there are six sub species, the Columbia’s (west slope) are probably the best. Though the plains variety is pretty good too. Rule of thumb is just cooked them like a piece of steak, get the grill super hot, oil them, lay them on the grate for 1 minute, and flip. and when a little bit of blood starts coming out the top they are done. You can cook them on the tailgate in less than two minutes.

Like any bird that flies a lot, the dark meat gets an irony flavor if you overcook it. Liver if you will. Don’t do that.

As you move down through the ranks, sooner or later, you hit end of season male Spruce grouse and bomber Sage grouse.

The ptarmigan and the prairie chickens are all dark and are in the middle. Though I have to say I killed a buck greater one time and it was the darkest meat I’ve ever seen in my life. Almost black. Very strong.

Potted some Sprucies that had been on needles in a drought year that about got me kicked out of the cabin.

CZ: I would normally defer to your greater experience here but...I have eaten both blue grouse and ruffed grouse and while I do enjoy the white meat of the blues, ruffies are head and shoulders above them for table fare IMHO.

Blues are bigger birds, no question, and while they aren't bad they are a much-firmer meat and they aren't nearly as savory as the ruffed. Where blues (now called "dusky" by the State here) have a white meat, the ruffed grouse tissue is almost translucent. When cooked, that translucence becomes snow white (blue grouse meat when cooked has an almost grey cast to it). Ruffed grouse is much-more tender and juicy and... it has an almost "sweet" flavor (when properly prepared) that the blues do not.

Now to be fair, when I was eating blues (& it's been a few years) I wasn't in a position to either age or brine them before cooking and perhaps that makes the difference?

The best answer is probably to say “to each their own, everybody’s taster is different”.

I eat things for what they are. I don’t try to make them taste like something else, I don’t do anything out of the ordinary.

I like complementary seasonings, complementary sauces, but I don’t do anything different to the meat.

We eat a lot of game.
Immediate disemboweling and a cavity rinse is probably the most essential act after dispatch.

As long as people eat what they kill, I’m cool with whatever a person likes.

I met a guy that stewed his ruffed grouse in root beer.

I think cock pheasant make a better brat than fricassee.

This one caught me by surprise.

It’s a great way to make space.

I dragged some walleye filets out of the freezer yesterday that had been there for over 2 years. They had been encased in a block of ice as well. They were still quite toothsome with a chardonnay cream sauce, smashed small potatoes and roasted carrots.

It is the gathering time for walleye fillets.

Any vacant space in the freezers around here will be filled with walleyes by the end of the month.

From this string of threads, you are starting Lloyd, it sounds like you need to adopt some freezer management.

It seems as though you are forgetting what’s in there, and that nobody’s cooking what IS in there.

Perhaps you can try the 12 bag approach.

Take 12 plastic shopping bags and put 7 pounds of something in each one of them.

Mix it up. Put a tag on it January through December.

Once a month, when you’re near the freezer, take a bag out and set it on the kitchen counter.

If you are going to make the effort to harvest them, it’s just a small step to make use of them.

Freezers too commonly become electric dumpsters.

You're right about that CZ. Around here we definitely have freezer management!! I own the same house I grew up in. Until I was about 40, we had exactly TWO power outages in my lifetime. TWO. Since global warming has kicked in- now we have about 2-4 PER YEAR. I have two portable generators I can run. So, I don't really worry about food going bad that much. But still, it's a good time to start getting rid of stuff. That's when the "freezer management" kicks in and it's best to start eating and getting rid of everything. I don't have to worry about food getting too old to eat. Everything I eat I know is going to be fresh. As long as meat stays at zero degrees, you're okay. But when it starts creeping up, that means trouble. Freezer management. Good idea.

I learned the 12 bag approach decades ago.
We would split a beef and after the steaks were gone, we ate soup bones and hamburger for the next 9 months.
That’s dumb.
Now the boxes are partitioned, and a week or two weeks worth of material comes out and gets transferred to the using freezer, and then every day or two packages come out of there.

It’s always a disappointment when there’s too much of one thing in the freezer and you can’t secure more of it because you don’t have any more room.

Ocean fish, freshwater fish, waterfowl, venison, upland birds, upland game, vegetables. Beef, pork, chicken, turkey, ham’s, corned beef, Prepared foods, soup.

Lots of choices.
Vacuum bags become essential.

CZ: That is actually a very well reasoned plan.

If I was even a little bit more disciplined I'd do it too (don't let my wife see this, her world is ruled by spreadsheets) but....I'm driven by whims I fear. I'll get hungry for something specific and that is what I'll dig out for the next dinner. I'm finding that I also go through phases as the seasons unfold, heavier stuff in fall and winter (soups, Italian, etc.) lighter in spring and summer (fish, fowl and salads).

We have 3 freezers here, one largish upright and two modern full-sized refrigerator/freezers so we do have some options. It is a crime to waste any game so I do my level best to make sure that doesn't happen, and after much procrastination (several years worth) our freezers are under control for now.

What throws all of that off is extended travel and spontanious buys at Costco. If I could.better manage all of that...