COOKERY OF THE GROUSE 281 



(who should not eat wild- or water-fowl at all) like wild 

 duck or widgeon, or anything of that kind, from solan 

 geese to plovers, otherwise than distinctly underdone. 

 But in regard to grouse it is impossible to say that 

 there is a distinctly orthodox or a distinctly heterodox 

 school in this respect. The ambiguity of general 

 opinion is shown by the variation in time from twenty 

 minutes to half an hour usually allotted for the roast- 

 ing of an average-sized young bird (I have even 

 seen three-quarters advised, but this is utterly pre- 

 posterous). This amounts to the difference between 

 a distinct redness close to the bone and 'cooking 

 through.' There is even a school who would have 

 grouse decidedly underdone. I think they are wrong, 

 and that there should be nothing in the very least 

 saignant about a grouse when he is carved, but that, 

 if possible, he should be taken away from the fire the 

 very minute that the last possibility of such a trace 

 has disappeared. 



The other two simple ways of cooking grouse (I 

 suppose men do boil them, just as they boiled Lord 

 Soulis, but I never knew a case) are broiling and con- 

 version into soup. A broiled or ' brandered ' grouse 

 is quite admirable, but must of course be quite young, 

 plentifully buttered (or oiled), and fairly peppered. 

 When successfully done it is like all broiled birds, one 



