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Roasted Grouse
Pluck and singe a grouse, draw it and allow it to hang in a cool place for several days. Wipe it well inside without washing, chop off its head and truss it; place a large lump of butter inside; put it on a spit in front of a clear fire, and roast for from thirty to forty minutes, basting frequently with butter. Put the liver of the grouse into a saucepan of water with a small lump of butter, salt and pepper to taste, boil it until it is like a paste, take it out, spread it over pieces of toast on a dish, place the grouse on the top, and serve with a sauceboatful each of rich gravy and bread sauce.
A spit-roasted game bird from the Waldorf's game season, written for a cook who had a live fire and a poulterer. The method translates to a hot oven with very little loss.
- The hanging is the recipeThe hanging is the point -- "several days in a cool place" means a game larder, cool and with air moving around the bird, which develops the flavour associated with hung game. A modern refrigerator, uncovered on a rack, will do the same work more slowly; a few days is the range usually recommended, and any sour or green smell means the bird is finished rather than ripe. Birds bought oven-ready from a game dealer have often been hung already, so this step can be skipped.
- Do not wash itWiping the cavity dry rather than rinsing is deliberate; wetting the bird works against browning in a short roast, and the bird has no fat to spare for a second attempt at crisping.
- Oven equivalent for "a clear fire"A clear fire is generally understood as one burnt down past flame to steady radiant heat. In an oven, roughly 425-450F is the nearest equivalent; the recipe's own thirty to forty minutes is short because a grouse is small and must not dry out.
- Basting and bardingGrouse carries almost no fat. Beyond the lump of butter in the cavity, lay a thin sheet of bacon or fat pork over the breast for the first two thirds of the roasting, then remove it to let the skin colour. Baste every eight to ten minutes.
- DonenessTraditional game cookery serves grouse pink at the breast, around 135F. Current food-safety guidance for poultry, wild birds included, is 165F at the thickest part; cooked that far a grouse will be noticeably drier, and it is worth deciding which you want before the bird goes in.
- The liver toastSimmering "until it is like a paste" takes only a few minutes for a bird's liver; press it through a sieve with the butter and seasoning rather than boiling it to collapse, which turns it grainy. Use fried bread or dry toast so it does not go soggy under the resting juices.
- Bread sauceAssumed knowledge in 1896 and less commonly made now: milk infused with onion and clove, thickened with fresh white breadcrumbs and finished with butter and cream. It should be thick enough to hold a spoon mark.
- YieldOne grouse serves one person, or two at a large meal with several courses. Rest the bird ten minutes before it goes onto the toast.
Grouse belongs to the autumn game calendar that American luxury hotels drew from British practice: red grouse from Scotland was imported, while native ruffed and prairie grouse came in from domestic shooting grounds. The trappings here are English -- the bird set on toast spread with its own liver, a boat of clear gravy, a boat of bread sauce -- a formula printed in similar words in Victorian household manuals, and traditionally explained by earlier roasting practice, where the toast sat under the spitted bird to catch the drippings and the liver was too good to waste. Oscar Tschirky, who compiled this book as maître d'hôtel rather than chef, was recording what the Waldorf's kitchen and its patrons expected of a game bird, not inventing anything; the instruction to hang the bird for days is a reminder that in 1896 a hotel had a game larder.