Skip to main content
Main

Roast Grouse

Roast grouse is a roasted game bird served with toast, brown gravy, and bread sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Roast Grouse

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the bird

  1. Pluck the bird carefully to avoid breaking the skin.

  2. Draw and wipe the bird with a damp towel; do not wash.

  3. Cut off the head and truss the bird like a fowl.

  4. Sprinkle the bird with pepper, salt, and flour.

Roast and serve

  1. Cook in a good oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 30 minutes.

  2. Baste frequently with butter, lard, or bacon fat.

  3. About 10 minutes before done, place the bird on a slice of buttered toast.

  4. Serve the bird on the toast with brown gravy and bread sauce.

  5. Optionally, add browned bread crumbs to the dish.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Grouse
Forms the main body of the dish, providing the meat that is roasted and served.
Flour
Dusted on the skin, it helps the surface brown and crisp during roasting.
Butter, lard, or bacon fat
Used for basting, it adds moisture and fat that promote browning and flavor on the skin.
Buttered toast
Soaks up drippings beneath the bird, adding moisture and a rich, savory base.

The step that matters

Basting frequently. Fat spooned over the bird carries heat to the surface and keeps the meat from drying out while the skin browns. Letting the fat lapse can leave the skin pale and dry.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes