272 COOKERY OF THE GROUSE 



as no other birds will. It was the custom of a hospit- 

 able friend of mine in Scotland, who was equally good 

 with rod and gun, to keep a supply of grouse hanging 

 till he could accompany them with salmon caught in a 

 river which was by no means a very early opening one, 

 and I never found birds taste better. The less regarded 

 members of the grouse tribe will, as I have said, bear 

 much longer keeping. Indeed, the best if not the 

 only really good capercailzie that I ever tasted had 

 been subjected to the indignity of being forgotten. 

 He was imported into the Channel Islands by an 

 enterprising game dealer ; I bought him, and as the 

 house in which I was living had no good larder, I 

 asked the man to keep him on his own premises till 

 he and we were ready. We promptly forgot all about 

 him, and it was several weeks before the shamefaced 

 dealer, who was equally oblivious, said one day, ' I'm 

 afraid, sir, that capercailzie . . . ! ' Nevertheless we 

 had him sent home. It was necessary to amputate 

 and discard a considerable part of him, but the rest 

 was altogether admirable. 



With all these birds, but especially with ptarmigan, 

 dryness is the great thing to be feared when roasting 

 them ; and this must be guarded against by liberal 

 basting, by jackets of bacon, and in other well-known 

 ways, especially, perhaps, by the German method of 



