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Moor Game, Stewed
Cut the birds into joints, if large, but only quarter small ones; rather old birds may be utilised by this mode of cooking. Put a quarter of a pound of butter into a large stewpan, lay in the joints, brown them over a slow fire, take them out, make a gravy in the pan, adding a small cup of stock and a couple of glassfuls of port wine, with a bit of garlic the size of a pea; season with white pepper, salt, and cayenne, if approved, and simmer slowly until tender. Thirty minutes will be sufficient time for young birds. The skin should be removed from old ones before they are fried. Probable cost, uncertain.
A straightforward braise built on butter, stock and port, aimed at birds too old to roast. The instructions are terse in places, so a few points are worth pinning down.
- What "moor game" meansRed grouse from the heather moors, shot in Britain from 12 August. A brace of grouse is small — one young bird per person, one older bird between two once jointed. Squab, partridge or a well-flavoured guinea fowl behave similarly in this braise.
- The hinge: this is a recipe for old birdsThe whole point is slow moist heat for a bird whose muscle has toughened. The thirty minutes given is for young birds only; the text otherwise says merely "simmer slowly until tender," which for an old grouse is likely to mean an hour and a half or more at a bare simmer, covered, until the meat pulls from the thigh bone. Rushing it produces something dry and livery.
- Quantities and glassesA quarter pound of butter is 115 g, which is generous if you are cooking only a brace — 55 to 60 g is plenty and leaves the sauce less greasy. A wine glass of the period is usually reckoned at about 2 fl oz, so "a couple of glassfuls" of port is roughly 120 ml. A "small cup" of stock is not a fixed measure; something in the region of 150–175 ml suits.
- "Make a gravy in the pan"Assumed knowledge: after the joints come out, the stock and port go into the browned butter and residue to make the sauce. The recipe does not say to thicken it, though a spoonful of flour stirred into the fat before the liquid goes in will give a rounder gravy rather than a thin pan liquor.
- Garlic the size of a peaA deliberately tiny amount — perhaps a quarter of a clove, crushed. Here it is meant as a background note rather than a dominant flavour; a whole modern clove will overwhelm the port.
- Skinning old birdsSound advice, and worth following: the skin of an older bird toughens over a long braise, and skinning is also said to soften the strong flavour of moorland grouse. Do this before browning, as the recipe directs, and expect less fond in the pan as a result.
- Seasoning and finishWhite pepper was preferred for its invisibility in pale sauces; black pepper works and tastes better. Skim the fat before serving, and check for salt at the end — port reduces to something quite sweet, and a squeeze of lemon or a spoon of redcurrant jelly balances it.
- Yield and serviceA brace of grouse treated this way serves two to four depending on age and size. Traditional accompaniments are fried breadcrumbs, game chips and watercress; buttered noodles or mashed potato suit the sauce better.
"Moor game" is the older trade name for red grouse, and its appearance in Cassell's reflects a Victorian food economy in which game arrived at the kitchen door by the brace and of unpredictable quality — hence the frank closing note, "Probable cost, uncertain." Grouse cannot be farmed, so supply depended entirely on the shooting season and the railways that carried birds south from Scottish and Yorkshire moors, an arrangement that made the Twelfth of August a fixture in the London restaurant calendar. Roasting was the prestige treatment, reserved for young birds of the year; stewing was the sensible fate of older ones, whose legs and breast had worked hard enough to defeat a hot oven. The port and the pea of garlic mark it as a dish from the richer end of the household repertoire, closer to the salmi of French practice than to plain English stew.