Matt got his first grouse on Saturday afternoon!
He's been out looking for grouse at least every other weekend since the season opened back in August, and finally found one while he was in a place he could shoot and he was carrying his gun. He sent me a photo as soon as they got back to an area with cell reception.
He was actually out tromping around through the brush with my youngest brother and my dad, who has a late-season antlerless moose permit, in the hopes of finding a moose to fill both families' freezers. As they were heading back to the truck, they scared up two grouse. Matt kept one in his sights and was able to get it when it roosted in a nearby tree. My dad was watching the second and my brother tried for it, but he kept scaring it off farther into the woods.
After cleaning it, Matt brought the meat in and asked for a grouse pot pie for supper. A grouse is pretty small, so the pie was more veggie than meat, but it was so nice to eat meat that he hunted for and brought home!
I have never heard of a grouse before! I'm going to assume it is a type of bird. Does it taste more like duck or chicken or something else? Interesting.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's a bird, in the same family as a pheasant (I think–we don't have pheasants here) It tastes fairly similar to chicken, but stronger; I've only ever made it with herbed sauces, so I don't know how it would taste on its own. They are too small to be worth roasting like a chicken, unless you had several at once!
DeleteWoo hoo! Another Alaskan. :-) Sadly, we have neither grouse nor moose in our freezer. One of these years he is going to have time, a permit, AND a buddy with the same available time! That pie looks fantastic. Good job!!
ReplyDeleteHooray! I'm always glad to find other Alaskan bloggers. There's so much they have to be able to coordinate to be able to go out hunting, isn't there? There's still time left to get a moose this year, depending on which game management unit you are in... I hope you wind up with meat in the freezer!
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