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Busting the myths about grouse
We have all heard the myths around the best type of grouse to eat and whether hanging impacts the flavour but what is the truth?
We invited twenty-five people, ranging from grouse moor gamekeepers and game dealers to those who just eat and enjoy grouse to a grouse tasting event held at The Blacksmith arms Lastington, in the heart of the Yorkshire moors.
The aim was to test some of those myths out.
Putting the theories to the test
We asked Ali Moran from the Blacksmith Arms to cook grouse in a way which showcases each product at its best, working with Ox Close Fine Foods we provided him with five types of grouse; young grouse, hung and not hung, old grouse (over a year old) hung and not hung plus grouse with the crop left in.
All of those at the event were given scorecards to record which dish they thought was which meat. All the tastings were done blind, and the dishes were not labelled or identifiable as to the meat.
There was a lot of chat about which was which with some participants convinced they knew which meat the dish was made from.
The results are in
At the end of the evening all the scorecards were collected and marked, interestingly only one person who was a grouse moor keeper could identify each dish correctly.
Although some of the other participants did identify a few dishes it was not consistent and it was not predominantly the young or old grouse they could identify.
There was not one dish either that was not as popular as any of the others all dishes were enjoyed as much as the next.
Thus, disproving the myths, old grouse is tough and strong, grouse hung is much stronger and not as pleasant, young grouse is the best and the meat is not tainted when the crop is left in.Â
So, I would say try it all and make your own mind up to which grouse you prefer.
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Annette Woolcock
Annette is Head of Wild Food for BASC and has worked with the organisation for over 11 years. Her role includes ensuring game meat is embedded in all BASC do, the Eat Game campaign and the Eat Game awards. She is a keen horse rider and shoots with a small syndicate on the edge of Dartmoor.
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