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?
Last edited by Lloyd3; 01/31/26 12:12 AM.
