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.