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GROUSE, OR WOODCOCK, MARINADED (a German recipe)
Hang the birds as long as possible. Pluck, draw, and wipe them dry with a soft cloth, and lay them in a marinade, made as follows:--Mince an onion, and put it in a quarter of a pint of vinegar, add a dozen peppercorns, twenty juniper-berries, and three bay-leaves. Let the grouse remain in this three days, turning them three times a day, and basting them frequently. Stuff them with turkey forcemeat, and lard the breasts with strips of fat bacon. Put them down to a clear fire, baste frequently, and serve with slices of lemon round the dish. Time, about half an hour. Probable cost of grouse, variable, from 2s. 6d. to 6s. 6d. per brace. Sufficient, a brace for four or five persons.
A German-style vinegar and juniper Beize applied to British game birds. Two things need attention before anything else: the marinade as written is far too small a quantity, and three days at room temperature is not how this should be done now.
- Marinade quantity and temperatureA quarter of an imperial pint is 5 fl oz, about 140 ml or roughly three-fifths of a US cup, which will not come near covering two birds. Scale up until the birds are submerged, and keep them in the refrigerator for the three days rather than in a larder; turn them as directed, but skip the "basting" of raw birds sitting out on a shelf.
- Hanging"As long as possible" meant several days to a week or more in a cold, airy game larder, depending on the weather, plucked only at the end, to develop the high flavour Victorians wanted. Birds from a dealer have usually been hung already; two to three days in the refrigerator is the modern equivalent and is plenty before a vinegar marinade goes to work.
- Woodcock and drawingThe instruction to draw the birds is unusual for woodcock, which is classically roasted undrawn with the trail left in and spread on toast. Follow the recipe if you prefer, but there is nothing wrong with leaving woodcock whole. Note also that in the US wild grouse and woodcock taken by hunters cannot legally be sold; what is offered for sale is farm-raised or imported.
- Juniper berriesTwenty is not a misprint. Dried juniper is mild, and the resinous note is the point of the German marinade. Crush them lightly so they release.
- "Down to a clear fire"A bright, flameless coal fire with the birds on a spit or hung before it. In an oven, roast at 425-450F, basting with the bacon fat. Half an hour suits grouse; woodcock, being much smaller, want 15-18 minutes.
- Larding versus bardingLarding needles are a specialist tool now. Draping the breasts with thin streaky bacon or thin-sliced fatback tied on, then removing it for the last five minutes to let the skin colour, gives the same protection.
- Turkey forcemeatA Victorian forcemeat of minced veal or poultry, suet or bacon fat, breadcrumbs, egg and herbs. A well-seasoned sausage meat with breadcrumbs and thyme is a reasonable stand-in; keep the quantity small so the birds still cook in half an hour.
- Doneness and yieldGrouse breast is best pink, around 130-135F at the thickest point, and goes dry and livery if taken much past that. Stuffing complicates this: check the forcemeat separately or serve it cooked alongside. A brace for four or five is optimistic by current appetites; count one grouse per person, or two woodcock.
The "German recipe" tag points to the vinegar-and-juniper Beize familiar from sauerbraten, applied here to game rather than beef: acid, onion, peppercorns, bay and a heavy hand with juniper, used both to tenderise and to push the flavour further in the direction of high, well-hung birds. Cassell's compiled its New Dictionary of Cookery in a period when English kitchens were absorbing French and German methods wholesale, and grouse was a luxury shot on Scottish moors from the twelfth of August and sent south by rail; the quoted price of 2s. 6d. to 6s. 6d. per brace is given simply as variable. The British practice of hanging game for days, and of marinading it hard afterwards, belongs to a period before refrigeration when the taste for gaminess was cultivated rather than merely tolerated.