The best wild meat . Without question.

[id. painter]

I live in Idaho . We have many kinds of wild game to enjoy each year .Many are great eatting.
Chuckar, Quail, Dove , Ringneck, the list goes on.
But for the absolute best wild game, you have to eat Ruffed Grouse.
It dosnt matter how you cook them they are always great.
Here is a favorite method of mine .
Two Ruffed Grouse . Cut the breast meat away from the bone . Rinse and soak in a light salt water solution for a couple days.
Take two cans of minced clams ,pour into a bowl and add the breasts. Let the breasts soak for about 4 hours in the clams.
Remove from the clams and cover with dredge with fine soda cracker crumbs and fry in butter till golden brown and then add chicken gravy if you want.
The best wild game bar non. id. painter

[Bounty Hunter]

Cool. I'll have to give that a try.

Thanks for the recipe, and the for the added inspiration to get out this weekend!

[Killertraylor]

That recipe reminds me of a buddy of mine who claims that those starry flounder you catch down at Astoria while sturgeon fishing are the best eating fish around. I asked him how he cooked them and he explained that you first roll fresh dungeness crab meat up inside the fillet, put a toothpick through it and then simmer it in a white wine/creamy mushroom sauce. Heck - you could make a terd taste good by cooking it like that!

[id. painter]

I agree, you can make anything O.K. if you cook it right .
But, I do think that Ruffed Grouse are the best.
I have actually cooked several with absolutly nothing. We stuck the breast on a stick and roasted it like a hot dog. They always eat great. Try the stick thing with a duck some time, icky poo. id. painter

[Miss B Haven]

Originally posted by Killertraylor:
Heck - you could make a terd taste good by cooking it like that!

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">Remind me NOT to go to any of Killertaylors barbecues!
[img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img] :shocked: :grin:

[James in Idaho]

Toss up for me, chukar or ruffs, too tough to decide. It is a good year for ruffs! Off to hunter safety tonight with my 10 year old girls, leave a few up on Scout for us! ; )

[steelhead22]

ducks- fun to hunt, but you better know how to cook 'em.

grouse- Very good! One of the best. Can't say I'd call a grouse the "best wild meat", you'd be putting up against big game, and it's tough to beat some good deer or elk. But as far as birds go, grouse is really good. Pheasant is up there with them. I gotta try that recipe of your's sounds great. Thanks.

[Bubzilla]

Grouse are hands down the best upland bird, and maybe even the best game period. Lately I've tended to harvest more Blues than Ruffs--because of where I hunt. Blues are usually slightly larger, and can sometimes be a little stronger flavored. But any grouse is good--save of course Sage Grouse. I prefer them just breaded in flour and fried. Dang, my mouth is beginning to water!

They're a great game to get kids started on too. My Dad used to take us kids each fall on a multi-day grouse hunting trip. We'd hunt all day and then he'd make grouse for dinner each night. Good times. Hmmm...I think perhaps a better Father's Day gift is in order next year?!

[TeamYeeha]

Caribo is some of the best big game meat for sure

Yeeha

[id. painter]

Ruffed Grouse , Quail, and Chuckar in that order for me thank you.
James in Idaho. This weekend I took my 11 year old son and his two friends for thier first Grouse hunt. Had a ball. The pup (Morgan) just got all her stitches out and did a great job of finding birds. The pup even got to make a perfect point for a wing shot. We went to Dan's creek and got 12 birds ,,, so there is still a bunch up on Scout Mt. Hi Ho id. painter

[id. painter]

Bubzilla,,, Thanks for the support.
The Blues where I live tend to spend the winter eating pine needles. Some of the older birds will have a distinct pine flavor. But young ones that are full of clover or berries yummm. id. p.

[Bait Bucket]

Ruffed grouse is number one on my list and it's the bird I hunt the most.

[SlimPickens]

Any of you Idahoans been out or seen IDFG's chukar counts this year? Wondering if it was a banner year for chukar or below average? And pheasants? Good, bad?

I got a lifetime hunting license so i venture over there a time or two every fall.

any insight would be appreciated.

[James in Idaho]

Shad Boy:

The counts over by Brownlee are up. State couldn't find helo's to fly the other areas due to all the firefighting, but from what I've seen, it should be good to great. I think if you go to the F&G website and check the "News" section, you'll find the count info.

ID Painter--went out last week after work, flushed over 20 with my chessie in the Crystal Mt. area in less than 2 hours. Finding them were there are spruce, aspen and lots of berries. Got two, gotta slow Bob down a little, or work harded keeping up! Should get great after the leaves come down.

[No Wishin Just Fishin]

I love ruffed grouse and chukar, but would much rather eat Moose. Best there is

[Bubzilla]

Caribou? Moose? No offense, but not even in the same league as a nice fat Midwest Whitetail. That's like comparing hot dogs to t-bone!

[SlimPickens]

thanks James. I do miss the country you're in. Love those wide open spaces...

[id. painter]

I did hear that it was a banner year for grouse!!!
id.painter

[TeamYeeha]

BUb hard to compare Caribou to Moose, but I'm saying that Caribou eat easily as good as grain fed whitetails any day of the week. No offence either :grin: It's more like New york cut vs T bone Moose is better than hotdogs for sure :tongue:

Yeeha

[id. painter]

Grouse in general are bad , smellers . The worst of the grouse familyis the good old Sage Grouse .
As a kid I killed one that weighed in at just under 7 lbs. Big , old, stinky ,Sage hen, with dark purple breast meat. Young ones arnt too bad. id. painter

[Don Becker]

I ordinarily bake my grouse breasts over a bed of wild and long grain rice . . . . . 'pretty fantastic!

'Wife's cousin cuts 'em up, dips 'em in egg, rolls 'em in Krusteez (sp?) mix, frys 'em in oil and calls 'em his Grouse McNuggets. Generally, a few days into a deer or elk hunt, we'll have a heaping plate full of these morsels to share with our evening meal.

Don

[TonTo]

While your out there bustin the grouse keep one eye open for some chantrelle mushrooms.Breast the grouse and bone the legs,chunk it all up and sautee in butter with fresh chantrelle add a little onion and garlic with a sqeeze of lemon,and a little pepper. umm umm I think I'll grab the scatter gun and take a walk.

[Salty Walty]

Hi All, First post but have lurked for awhile. Best wild meat was Moose tenderloin no comparison.
Best wild fowl are corn fed Mallard or Brant.

[Killertraylor]

Id.painter - thanks for the recipe - when I reread my post it sounded a bit pointed and I didn't mean for it to be - I wrote down your recipe and hope to try it. I don't shoot many grouse - mostly chukars and pheasants, but I'll try it with them.

Yeeha - are you serious? I've had caribou twice and both times it tasted like liver! It's wierd though - a lot of people I've talked to agree with me and then I've heard many like you who say it's the best - maybe I haven't eaten a good one yet?

Mine goes Elk, deer (Whitetail, then Muley, then Blacktail) and then chukar.

[Radke]

Grouse got to be the stinkiest animal around to clean, but your right, they are down-right tasty. Still, one of the best wild game meals I ever had was red squirrl. Not a whole lot to em, but whats there is really good.

[TeamYeeha]

Killer T I am totally serious. I love Caribou meat and they are one of the funnest animals to hunt also. All I can say is that any game animal not dropped in their tracks has the time to run amd pump the adrenalin through the system will make it taste like doggie bobo I would say that blacktails have to come before White tails and muleys As Ted Nugent would say it's the ultimate protien OH Ya The spirt of the wild lives on at my house for sure
Larry Yeehaaaaa

[willametteriveroutlaw]

The trick with caribou is to get them before they start rutting. They are the proably the best, if taken care of well. Although I hung a old toothless blacktail buck for 8 days and it was really good as well.

[TeamYeeha]

Right on! WR Outlaw.. Hang the quarters off the wings of the airplane on the water so the cool out good or leave them on the ice field until you fly out makes for some great meat

YEE Haaaaaa
Larry

[Killertraylor]

Well, Yeeha - I guess I'll just have to keep trying Caribou until I get a good piece. I've shot lots of deer and they all tasted fine, even the ones that ran awhile after I got them with a bow.

It could also be a taste preference - some folks like that liver taste but I prefer a taste closer to beef.

[Tilla]

Moose is darn tasty. I've had raw Caribou (when in Rome )and that was pretty sweet meat at least in early Sept.

[James in Idaho]

But then, one of the reasons that chuckar is so tasty has to be a revenge factor! Red legged devil birds, that's what they are.

[TeamYeeha]

Killer T :tongue: Right on to you too There is room next to the mashed potatoes for both

Yee Haa

Larry