Red grouse ◆

Grouse d’Écosse

What it is

Red grouse has never been reared in captivity, so every bird on a menu was shot wild on managed heather moor. The season opens on 12 August by statute — the earliest game of the British year — and it is the bird's year-round diet of heather shoots that gives the flesh its almost bitter, peat-edged flavour.

In the kitchen

Roast the crown at 230 °C for twelve minutes and no longer; the breast wants to come out at 52 °C, and the legs are sinewy enough to be worth taking off for a sauce or a toast. Serve it on its own fried crumbs and bread sauce — a strong garnish fights it and loses.

Goes with

Blackberry Juniper berry Cream Butter Blackcurrant Cabbage Black pepper Chanterelle

Same species

Ptarmigan

Also used with

Heather honey

In season alongside

Figatellu Acorn Artichoke Bagnoli truffle Woodcock Snipe

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