Birdy, no way I could grind up grouse meat its too good but that's an interesting idea for woodcock. For woodcock I typically put in a crockpot, shread it and add it to homemade red beans and rice with some smoked sausage.
Grouse I debone, and brine the fillets for about 1- 1 1/2 hrs, dont brine too long or it will make the meat rubbery. Bread in plain flour and deep fry until the fillets stop bubbling vigorously. The brine flavors the meat so you dont need to season the flour.
The brine is 2 oz of salt and 2 oz brown sugar packed add 4 cups of water, I normally mix 2 cups of hot water first so the salt and sugar dissolve better than 2 cups of cold water. Then I add some lemon juice, garlic and crushed red pepper and black pepper. This brine works great on chicken/turkey and thick sliced pork chops, length of time varies if the poultry is on the bone or boneless. 1" and up chops normally brine about 4 hrs.
Not a hunting report per se but I was wondering about favorite recipes you guys have for your grouse and woodcock. I have a chili recipe that I came up with years ago. I think it's pretty good. I even entered it into our town chili cookout to help fund raise for the high school football team. 43 people entered and my recipe won the cook off and received almost a third of all the votes! People were shocked when they learned that I used ground grouse, woodcock and pheasant in the recipe. I make it every year with the birds I froze from the previous season. We take it up north to grouse camp and make a few dinners out of it.
I also love cooking up the fresh birds with some garlic, herbs, butter, cognac and mushrooms. Can't beat that after trudging many miles through the woods with the dogs.
Does anyone know if woodcock are still hanging around northern Wisconsin or have they migrated? Freezing temps forecasted for this weekend. Not sure if we should make the trip north.
Finished our week long hunt in NC and NE Wisconsin. Found a fair number of birds but not as good as last year. Ended up with 136 flushes of grouse and woodcock. Weather was more rainy this year than last. Found most birds in 9-12 year old cuts. A little younger than last year. I don’t believe the main woodcock flight has come down yet but still saw a fair number of flight birds. Grouse numbers for us were comparable to last year. Lots of miles walked and good times with life long friends. Can’t beat that.
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