Whole Wild Grouse – A Seasonal British Game Bird
A British icon, the red grouse marks the beginning of the game season on the Glorious Twelfth, 12 August. The shooting season runs until 10 December, making this a true seasonal delicacy.

Our red grouse from the Yorkshire moors* develop their signature flavour from a natural diet of heather tips and bilberries. The result is rich, dark meat with an unmistakably gamey depth.

We recommend keeping things simple. Serve whole roast grouse with crisp game chips and Val’s easy bread sauce for a classic, satisfying plate.

Valentine Warner on the Majesty of Grouse
"Goback, goback, goback, the vocalisation of the grouse thrills me to the core, both uplifts and haunts me, for to observe or hunt them is to be immersed in a most special, quiet and unique landscape. The grouse and the heather are so eternally intertwined.

Whether seen as a covey whizzing low along the maroon contours of the moors like a squadron of tiny fighter jets, or singularly pacing its lookout boulder, a plump, tweeded sentinel, for me the grouse is the definitive emblem of what we might consider the last vestiges of wild Britain.

Wading through heather in rare sunshine or driving rain, you have to work for a grouse. It is this gesture of exchange, a life for a meal, that makes me want to show the utmost respect to what I consider the greatest prize of all our game birds.

Nibbling on heather tips and bilberries, the purple flesh of the grouse is nothing short of exquisite. Like snipe and woodcock, grouse will not eat from cultivated crops. So selective is its diet, it is among the truest wild meats you can put on a plate.

While old recipes insist on hanging as essential, I tend to disagree. The results can be too strong and risk putting off first-timers. I see reason only to hang older birds, or those shot at the end of the season, for no more than two days. Any longer and I feel it risks spoiling such delicious meat, meat so full of simultaneous depth and subtlety. The breast and leg meat are totally different in character, the latter often compromised by extended hanging."