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Grouse Hunting at Wawang Lake

14 Apr

Join us in NW Ontario CANADA for some exciting and thrilling grouse hunting

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Grouse Season:  September 15th to Oct 31st

Grouse hunting is a relaxing pastime that is getting more and more popular every year.  In our area bird hunting can be an adventure in itself!  Driving down the back roads & trails in your truck or on your ATV can not only be thrilling but breathtaking as well as you wander down roads that are in full color deserving of natures fall foliage. Just taking in these magnificent fall colors, peaceful wilderness & the wildlife that you’ll encounter will make you feel like you are definitely “North of the Tension Zone”.

The bush trails with the rise of the birds, singing of the guns, the smell of the pines along with friendly comraderie back at the camp will not long be forgotten.

Surrounding Wawang Lake are hundreds of miles of ATV trails, old logging road, game animal trails and hiking trails. The bush is just stuffed with these upland game birds and on a sunny fall afternoon you will see hoards of them. Many of our guests choose a fishing / grouse hunting combination package and spend half the their time taking advantage of the awesome northern pike and walleye fishing and spend the rest of their time enjoying the clean fall area and exploring the many trails where birds are plentiful.

There are three species of grouse found in Ontario.

Ruffed Grouse  –  Spruce Grouse  –  Sharptail Grouse

Ruffed Grouse
Spruce Grouse
Sharptail Grouse

Ruffed Grouse is the most common and comprises of 80% of what you will encounter during your hunt.

The limit for grouse in Ontario is 5 birds per day in any combination of species with a total of 15 in your possession and you will be surprised at the number of grouse we do have and how fast you’ll bag those limits.

Compared to other areas the grouse cycle in our area has remained consistently high over the years and we credit this because of less human population that other places are known for.  In a nutshell what you’ll experience at Wawang Lake is a vast area of complete privacy during your hunt.

The most popular guns for grouse hunting are .410 or 20 gauge shot gun and some hunters use a 12 as well.   Quickly becoming more popular is BOW HUNTING for birds.  To increase the thrill and excitement of your hunt give your bow a try and the challenge alone is sure to thrill you.

 Grouse-Fishing Combo Package

September 15th through to October 31st

 USD 495.00  per hunter
CABIN – BOAT & MOTOR
For a (6) night stay

Housekeeping Cabin Suitable For Group Size

Blaze orange hat & vest is required and must be worn out in the field

Canadian Firearms Regulations
All Firearms (does NOT include bows) being brought into Canada must be registered at the Canadian Customs at the time of entry into Canada. A one-year permit costs $50.00 Canadian, or there is a long term permit as well. If you would like further information, you can visit the Canadian Firearms Website through the link on our website or call toll free, 1-800-731-4000.

Canadian Customs
You should be aware of special customs and immigration issues whenever traveling to another country. For people with prior legal issues (including DWI’s) you need to find out what restrictions may be placed on your travel. Visit the Border Crossing Link and/or the Canada Citizenship & Immigration.

DEPOSIT REQUIREMENTS
A $150.00 non-refundable deposit is required at the time of reservation to guarantee a hunt. Balance to be paid in full upon arrival at the resort.  Hunting deposits and installments are non-refundable. Consideration may be given to date transfers if vacancy can be filled.

There are a limited number of spaces available for our hunts. Often there are more guests interested in hunting than there are available spaces, and hunts are often booked a year or more in advance. It is extremely difficult to fill spaces that become available due to cancellation. For these reasons we ask that our guests do not book hunts lightly

For further information, or, to book your next bear hunt please contact us at:
1-888-534-9217 or EMAIL

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Posted by on April 14, 2015 in grouse, Wawang Lake Resort

 

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Pattern Birds for a Better Hunt

26 Mar

But you can save steps, increase your flush count, get more shots, and bag more birds if you use some common sense and follow the program below. Ruffed grouse utilize different parts of their habitat at different times of day. Here’s where to hunt and when.

Early Morning: Timber Seams
Don’t believe sleepyhead late-risers who rationalize that grouse hunting is better at midmorning. Hit the woods at sunrise, when the birds have just flown down and are moving out and laying down some scent for your dog. Even if you hunt without a canine, grouse are on the move and more vulnerable now.

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Hunt seams and transitions between big, mature timber (where birds like to roost), open areas, and the thick brush where grouse spend the bulk of their day. Another good zone is the seam between conifers, such as pines or spruce, and hardwoods.

cranMidmorning: Feeding Zones
By the time the sun has been up for an hour, most grouse have arrived at their feeding area and are foraging hard. Know what the birds are eating: If you shoot a grouse, open up its crop and check inside. Then hunt that kind of feed.

Grouse love high bush cranberries, plus most any other juicy or freeze-dried fruit, such as crab apples. Abandoned orchards are grouse heaven. If there are oaks around, grouse will look for small acorns and pieces. Work the edges of open areas like hay meadows and abandoned fields, where grouse will hunt insects and pick up seeds. Logging roads and tote trails with clover are also prime.

Afternoon: Thick Stuff
After feeding, ruffs work their way into the thick stuff, where they will loaf and spend the day under cover. As a general rule, think “low” and/or “damp” now—along brooks, creeks, marshes, bogs, and seeps.

Head for stands of young aspen—trunks from buggy-whip-thick to fencepost diameter are about right. Grouse love tag alder thickets, especially where that cover butts up to timber or wetlands. Brushy tangles of witch hazel, raspberry canes, and multiflora rose hold birds. So do deadfalls. On windy days, kick around in the grassy edges of some of the thickest cover.

Late Afternoon: Feeding/Gritting Areas
By late afternoon, grouse are out feeding again, as well as pecking for grit.
Hit the kinds of feeding areas discussed above. Also work sandy lanes, dirt roads, and the edges of other open areas where birds pick up grit.

Evening: Transition Corridors
You can hunt grouse right up to sunset, and this is a great time to be out, when the birds are back on the move toward roosting areas. Research indicates that grouse prefer to roost in and under deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs, in brush piles, and in leaf litter. When cold weather hits, grouse will snow roost unless conditions are unsuitable. Conifers are then the roost cover of choice. Try hunting the transitions between stands of young timber and thick brush, or young timber and mature trees. If the evening is windy, stick to lower ground where birds find protection and quiet.

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Posted by on March 26, 2015 in game, grouse, gun hunting, hunting, northern ontario, Northwestern Ontario, trip planning, Wawang Lake Resort

 

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Roasted Grouse With Mushrooms

23 Mar

Make your own cream of mushroom sauce (and add bacon and whiskey) for this classic grouse recipe

grouse

Ask any deer camp old-timer for a foolproof recipe, and you’re likely to encounter a lot of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup. There is a reason for that: Mushrooms plus cream plus game meat adds up to a perfect trinity of flavors. This recipe chucks the can, and all its high-sodium gloppiness, while retaining the earthy comfort that made mushrooms and cream the go-to sauce for generations of hunters.

Ingredients

Grouse:
4 grouse
4 Tbsp. butter, softened
8 strips bacon

Sauce:

2 Tbsp. butter
20 oz. cremini or wild mushrooms, trimmed and sliced thin (morels, chanterelles, or a mix of wild and cultivated would be good)
1 shallot, minced
1 cup rich chicken stock (or defatted drippings from the pan)
3 sprigs thyme
12 cup cream (or crème fraîche)
(or)

1 Tbsp. bourbon
1 Tbsp. fresh thyme leaves, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. ROAST THE GROUSE: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Rinse the birds, pat dry, then smear each with a tablespoon of softened butter. Generously salt and pepper, inside and out. Wrap 2 bacon slices around each grouse, then set them in a roasting pan. Roast in the oven until the grouse is browned, about 25 minutes. Remove to a plate and let rest, covered loosely in tinfoil, while you make the sauce.

2. MAKE THE SAUCE: Melt 2 Tbsp. butter in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and about 1/2 tsp. salt and sauté, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms release a lot of moisture and begin to smell fragrant, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and add the shallot. Sauté until soft, and until most of the moisture has gone out of the pan, about 4 minutes. Add the stock (or defatted drippings from the roasting pan) and thyme sprigs and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half. Pour in the cream and bourbon and simmer until the sauce thickens, about 3–5 minutes.

3. TO SERVE, spoon the sauce onto four plates, and rest a grouse in the center of each. Sprinkle thyme over the grouse. SERVES 4

grouse3

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Posted by on March 23, 2015 in grouse, hunting, mushrooms, recipe, Wawang Lake Resort, Wildlife

 

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Tips For More Grouse

18 Mar

trees3Learn to Recognize Good Cover
Some hunters seem to have a sixth sense about where the grouse are. This isn’t magic but rather the culmination of years of experience, observation, and a working knowledge of what the birds need. These guys are constantly reading about grouse habitat and lore; they take note of wherever they hear drumming in the spring. They know that good grouse cover holds food and provides protection from predators — if it is near an evergreen stand or gravel so much the better.

Take a page from these hunters. Every time you or your dog move a bird, have a good look around after the smoke has cleared — you’ll see a pattern soon enough. Study grouse biology at home; carry field guides when you hunt; learn to recognize common grouse foods in your area. After a while you’ll develop that sixth sense too.

Keep a Log
Every serious grouse hunter I know keeps a hunting log. Some maintain elaborate leather-bound journals in which they detail particulars of the hunt such as the date, cover, number of flushes, dog work, weather, harvest, and crop contents of the birds. Other keep it simple, by marking covers on their handheld GPS. Either way, the hunter is reminded of the places that produced grouse last season.gps

Do this consistently and it won’t take many seasons before you have a bevy of early, mid, and late season options. The more options you have, the better your chance of having a grouse dinner.

Break Some Clay
Over the course of a season, few of us get enough shots at grouse. So it only stands to reason that a hunter ought to make the most of each opportunity. I do this by honing my shotgunning skills in the off-season. Skeet, trap, or sporting clays keep a hunter sharp so that mounting and swinging his scattergun becomes second nature. You’ll still miss — grouse have a way of humbling everyone — but you’ll also make some shots that you might not have without the off-season practice. It just takes a few of these to turn a mediocre season into a great one.

Don’t Forget the Dog Days
Spring and summer are tailor-made for training your dog. Despite this, few of us take advantage of the opportunity. Instead, we expect our dogs to work flawlessly on opening day and we’re actually surprised when that doesn’t happen.

Does your flushing dog hunt too far ahead and blow cover before you get there? A little “hup training” (teaching your dog to sit on command, no matter how far away) in the off season goes a long way towards remedying this. You might also consider brushing up on retrieving drills or introducing your dog to pigeons or game farm forays prior to the season. Some advanced training, such as steadying to wing and shot (where a dog sits down automatically at each flush) might require the help of a professional dog trainer. If that’s what you want, the off-season is the time to do it.

P1040011

Pointing dogs have their own set of training needs, which might include bolstering staunchness, retrieving, hunting range and finding dead birds. Whatever your canine hunting partner’s flaw is, the off-season is the time to address it.

The idea is to learn to handle your dog so that you perform as a well-oiled team during the hunting season. There are plenty of great dog training books and videos — the off-season is when you should benefit from them most.

Follow the Food
Grouse eat hundreds of types of food and each provides a clue as to where the birds are hanging out. That’s why it’s a good idea to check the crop of every bird you shoot. Knowing what grouse are eating helps you understand their habits and tells you where you should focus your hunting efforts. If the last three birds you shot were full of blackberries, for instance, it’s definitely time to hunt any of your covers that hold these shrubs.

Against the Wind
A dog relies on his nose to find birds. So why would you hunt with the wind at its back? We all know that there isn’t any good reason for doing so, but it’s one of the first things excited dog handlers forget when approaching good cover.

If you hunt into the wind, your dog will work closer, scent more game and, hopefully, find more birds. It’s a simple but often overlooked strategy that can make the difference between a full and empty game bag. This is also an important consideration when looking for a lost bird. Take your dog downwind from where you think it fell and let it start hunting from there.

Stop and Start
A good grouse hunting dog provides opportunities that you might not have otherwise had, but that’s not to say that a dog less hunter can’t do well. The key, for a dog less hunter, is to stop and start through likely cover and change direction often. These unpredictable patterns unnerve grouse and invariably pressure them into flushing. Another added bonus is that when you stop you can sometimes hear the put-put-put of a grouse moving just ahead of you. If that’s the case, get the gun up and rush it.

Don’t Hesitate
A good upland shot doesn’t hesitate. He takes the first available shot, even if it’s not a great one.

If you wait for a better chance you’ll rarely get it. Similarly, if you are leading a bird that disappears behind a screen of leaves, follow through, and shoot anyway. You’ll be surprised how often you connect. If not, shells are cheap.

While we’re on the subject of shooting, be ready for the second flush. Often, especially, early in the season when birds are still in their family groups, multiple flushes do occur. If you keep this in mind, they won’t catch you flat-footed — or with an empty gun.

Follow Up
Whenever you flush a bird and don’t fold it, mark where you last saw it. Most times they won’t fly much further than 150 yards. If you marked it well and follow up immediately, you have a good chance of forcing a second flush.

 

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Another advantage of following up on grouse is that they sometimes lead you to new covers. If that’s the case, don’t forget to mark it.

Lastly, never assume that you missed any grouse that you shot at. After the shot, keep quiet and listen. Sometimes you’ll hear a mortally wounded grouse doing its death dance against the ground — that’s the one that you thought you missed.

The Right Tools
A fast-handling 12, 16 or 20 gauge shotgun is ideal for birds. Most gunners like double guns. Some happen to prefer a pump because that’s what they shoot best with.  However, don’t discount the light weight, easy to carry .410 shotgun.  Nice little gun with ever growing in popularity in our neck of the woods.

Whatever, your preference, you can’t go wrong using 2 3/4-inch shells filled with 7.5 shot. Grouse aren’t tough birds and it doesn’t take much to bring them down. Since most shots are within 15 yards, the more open-choked your barrels are, the better.

Other essential grouse hunting tools include a quality blaze orange upland hunting vest with a lined game pouch; brush pants; comfortable, well-supported hunting boots; and a compass and/or GPS. If you are hunting with a dog, a whistle, water bottle, portable dog dish, dog first aid kit, and lead are important too. When working heavy, thorny cover, a pair of shooting glasses that protect your eyes are worth their weight in gold.

Conclusion
No one ever said grouse hunting was complicated. But it does take some planning, know-how and skill. Over the last few years, these strategies have made many a much better grouse hunter. Hopefully, they’ll do the same for you.

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Posted by on March 18, 2015 in Ammunition, firearm, grouse, gun hunting, hunting equipment, northern ontario, Northwestern Ontario, Wawang Lake Resort

 

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Get More Early-Season Birds

27 Feb

It weave left, slip right, then disappear through the auburn treetops. It’s not often you get such a clear look at an escaping grouse during the early weeks of the season, but there I was, frozen as the bird slipped through the prettiest shooting lane I’d see on the entire trip. I never pulled the trigger.

ruffed-grouse-flying-down-from-limb-timothy-flanigan

The embarrassing reality of this scenario is that I’d been caught off guard. It was my first grouse hunt, and I wasn’t prepared for the surprise of the flush. That was a tough lesson, but it wasn’t the only one I learned during that trip to the hallowed grouse of NW Ontario’s Boreal Forest. Here are some more hits and misses that, if you’ll consider before you reach the woods, should help you bag more early-season birds.


1.  Being Aggressive
There’s no place for methodical shooting when hunting grouse. There’s no time for the shot to develop, as with long, loping shots on the sporting clays course. Grouse are fast, and they live in dense cover. But you don’t have to be a snap shooter to be successful. You just have to be aggressive. You should have nothing on your mind but finding that bird. The sooner you see it, the sooner you can move for it. Visualize beating the bird to the treetops with your gun.

2.  Going Off Trail
We started our morning busting brush but by midday got lazy and stayed on old logging roads & trails. The result was a half dozen points in cover that we couldn’t reach in time. Our hunt picked up tremendously in the afternoon, when we got back in the brush.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

3.  Misjudging Range
Twice I flushed grouse that I thought were out of range, although they were visible, only to realize afterward that they were makeable shots. Part of the fault was how I prepared. Before the trip I had practiced mostly fast, outgoing targets thrown from a few yards in front of me—textbook fast-flushing bird presentations. I was visualizing those shots in the field, and when birds flushed from farther away, I had the impression they were out of range.  Be sure to practice at longer ranges.

4.  Starting With The Gun Up
A solid ready position is a key to hitting fast-flying birds. It gets your body and eyes ready to make a quick, efficient move. When you moved in on birds with the stock up under your armpit and the barrel pointed forward, you will shoot much better.

5.  Relaxing After The Flush
Grouse might not covey up like quail, but they do often travel in close proximity to each other, especially where there’s a good food source. I saw this first-hand when we flushed three pairs of grouse over the course of a day. So when a bird flushes out of range or doesn’t offer a shot, don’t drop your guard. Be ready for another bird to flush.

Evening_Flight-_Ruffed_Grouse_large

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Posted by on February 27, 2015 in grouse, hunting, Uncategorized, Wawang Lake Resort

 

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Grouse Hunting Tips

05 Feb

Ruffed Grouse are the king of all game birds, and sometimes (most of the time) the most challenging. So here are a few tips and techniques that you can try that work well.

Ruffed Grouse

Ruffed Grouse

In order to hunt grouse, you need a place that holds birds. Ruffed Grouse like moist, dark places with little ground cover (like grass), but low overhead cover.  Our hunting areas here in Northwest Ontario are mixed timber and brush along creek bottoms. Grouse need food, and mostly live on buds and berries, but also feed on bugs and clover. Food sources differ from area to area, but grouse typically eat the same things everywhere. You will notice that grouse change their diet as the seasons change.

The ideal areas to hunt will hold the presence of water as that makes a big difference,  creek bottoms with mixed old growth and re-prod, and a road close by for grit.

Early in the season, you will find the birds in family groups or coveys. As season and winter progress, the groups break up and you will find birds mostly in singles and pairs. Early season birds hold pretty tightly here in our area, but it isn’t like that everywhere.

Ruffed grouse have a daily routine, so you can pattern them. They normally get up late and fly into a feeding area or along a road to pick gravel. Then it’s off to loafing and dusting the afternoon away. In the evening, they will go back to feeding, and usually roost around the same area.

Before season, and if you can, drive roads looking for new spots an checking old ones. Early in the morning or late in the evening, you can find grouse in the roads picking gravel. Mark these spots and come back during season to hunt the areas around them. Even if an area doesn’t provide birds, still go back a different time to check again if everything the grouse need is there so will they eventually.

German Shorthair Pointing at a ruffed Grouse in the Oregon Woods

When hunting grouse, use a dog that has a really good nose and hunts from close to medium range. It’s a good idea to sometimes stop in an area that will likely hold birds and let the dogs just circle. Grouse are hard to scent for dogs, so slow and steady is good.  Hunt up or down creeks, then turn around and hunt back in the opposite direction.   It’s hard to believe how many birds the dogs will miss the first pass, but after you leave, they will move around put out a good scent cone for the dogs.

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Posted by on February 5, 2015 in grouse, gun hunting, hunting, Northwestern Ontario, Wawang Lake Resort

 

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TIPS for Hunting Grouse Without a Dog + video

27 Jan

Ruffed grouse (colloquially called partridge) are the premier upland game bird of northern New England and are both delicious and incredibly difficult to hunt. They often dwell in the kind of thick, previously logged, new-growth forest habitat that is nearly impossible to walk through and offers a wall of brushy cover that can make spotting and hitting birds a tall order.

grouse (3)

A hunter with a well- trained canine companion can level the playing field somewhat due to the fact that a good dog can sniff out birds and give the hunter a slight edge. Unfortunately, not everyone is in a position to give a hunting dog the proper home and training it needs and are thus stuck hunting solo. All is not lost, however, and the following tips will improve a hunter’s chances of bagging a few grouse without the aid of a dog.

1. Locate Food Sources

Omnivorous ruffed grouse have a varied diet that includes insects, snails, slugs, mushrooms, and the leaves and buds of trees (usually poplar), but they have a particular affinity for the various fruits that are common to their habitat.

Other fruits that may attract grouse include choke cherries, blackberries (if they are still present at the start of hunting season), and the fruit of hawthorn trees or “haws”.

grouse

2. Stick to the beaten path

Whenever it is possible, safe, and legal to do so, it makes sense for a grouse hunter to stick to established trails and decommissioned logging roads. The primary reason for holding to roads and trails is that these travel ways provide grouse with a convenient source of dust and pebbles. The birds dust themselves to control parasites, and eat small pebbles to aid in the breakdown of food stored in their gizzards. It follows that grouse often stay within easy striking distance of a path or road. Areas where a food source, such as a stand of apple trees or poplar saplings, is immediately adjacent to gravel path or road typically yield a lot of grouse.

Trails and roads also facilitate easy movement through the thick, brushy, and nearly unwalkable new-growth forests that comprise typical ruffed grouse habitat.

3. On rainy days, take to the pines

Grouse, much like any other terrestrial animal in existence, don’t like to be rained on and will seek shelter during inclement weather. This shelter often takes the form of such coniferous trees as balsams and spruces. Stands of pines that are in close proximity to food sources are particularly good places to look for grouse on wet weather days.

4. Keep one eye on the ground and the other on the trees

An easy error to make while hunting grouse is to keep eyes only on the ground. While ruffed grouse are primarily ground-dwelling birds, they do spend an appreciable amount of time perched in trees. A hunter concentrating on spotting birds on the ground will likely miss birds perched in tress and vice versa.

grouse (2)

5. Catch them sitting still

Ruffed grouse are an incredibly difficult bird to wing shoot, especially without the help of a dog to provide advanced warning or a bird’s presence. Not only do grouse take flight in a manner that results in a sudden blur of motion and thunderous wing beats likely to startle an unaware hunter, but the birds are also adept at quickly taking cover by putting trees and thick brush between them and the muzzle of a shotgun. By the time a hunter, surprised by a bird, shoulders his or her gun, disengages the safety, and gets on target, the bird will likely be gone. That’s not to say those hunting sans dog will never hit a flying grouse, it’s just that spotting the birds before they take flight is a surer way to put meat on the grill.

Spotting grouse before they fly is a skill in and of itself as their natural camouflage is just shy of perfect. A good way to spot them is to look for movement rather than trying to recognize their outline on the forest floor. A grouse moves in a very awkward, jerking motion, similar to that of a chicken. This distinctive movement will often give away a bird’s position.

Occasionally, ruffed grouse will also give away their position with sound. The noise that ruffed grouse are perhaps best known for is their characteristic drumming that sounds similar to a distant lawnmower engine starting and stalling. This sound will make a hunter aware of a bird’s presence in a general area, but it is difficult to use it to pinpoint an exact location.  Another sound emitted by grouse is a kind of high-pitched, raspy clucking.  Grouse will occasionally make this clucking sound when distressed a few seconds prior to taking off, thereby giving a hunter advanced warning of its presence in the immediate area.

6. Walk slow, pause often

This last piece of advice is perhaps the single most important.  Most of us have become conditioned to walk through our day to day lives as quickly as we possibly can. This mindset is perfect when navigating the local supermarket, but it will lead to certain failure on a hunt.

Rather than walking quickly and continuously, it is important to move at what at first will seem like a snail’s pace, and to pause every few steps to thoroughly scan the woods. Walking in this manner will not only result in the spotting of more game, but will also result in a hunter noticing other interesting details about the woods that would be missed when hiking at forced march speeds. Noticing such details as a vibrantly colored mushroom, a hawk or eagle circling high overhead, or even just a really cool looking tree are as important to the experience of hunting as bagging game.

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Posted by on January 27, 2015 in grouse, hunting, Northwestern Ontario, Wawang Lake Resort

 

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Grouse Fricot

25 Jan

3

Adapted from the cookbook Traditional Recipes of Atlantic Canada, this Acadian dish is a popular part of traditional New Brunswick cuisine. Fricot is basically a stew comprising potatoes, vegetables, savory and any available fish or meat, in this case ruffed grouse. Bon appétit!

Serves: 4

Ingredients

  • 2 ruffed grouse
  • 4 tbsp butter
  • Salt and black pepper
  • 1 white Spanish onion, diced
  • 2 sachets chicken bouillon
  • 4 1/2 cups water, divided
  • 3 tsp summer savory
  • 2 cups potatoes, diced
  • 2 cups carrots, diced
  • 2 stalks celery, diced
  • 2 tbsp flour

Preparation

  • Wash dressed grouse under cold water and pat dry with paper towel. Remove breasts and cut into medallions. Separate legs from carcass.
  • Braise medallions and legs in butter in an oven roaster over medium-low heat until browned (approximately 15 minutes). Add salt and pepper to taste. Keep lid on roaster to ensure grouse stays moist.
  • Saute onions until soft and add to grouse.
  • Stir chicken bouillon into 3 cups water in a microwave-safe mixing bowl and bring to a boil in a microwave. Add savory and pour on top of grouse. Simmer until meat is tender (15 to 20 minutes).
  • Season remaining vegetables with 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Bring roaster liquid to a boil, add vegetables and reduce to a simmer for another 20 minutes.
  • Mix flour with 1 1/2 cups cold water to create a smooth paste. Slowly stir paste into roaster liquid until it thickens into a sauce. Serve with crusty rolls and a garden salad with raspberry vinaigrette.

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Posted by on January 25, 2015 in grouse, recipe, Wawang Lake Resort

 

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Breast of Grouse Monterey Jack

15 Jan

 

grouse mont

You don’t have to do much to a ruffed grouse to bring out the great taste; nor do you want to go too far and overwhelm the natural flavors. This simple but delicious recipe archives the perfect balance.

Serves: 4

Ingredients

  • 4 ruffed grouse breasts, butterflied
  • 4 slices Monterey Jack, 1/8-inch thick
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 cup cornflakes, crushed
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil

Preparation

  • Preheat oven to 325°F. Make a slit almost all the way through each breast; fill each slit with 1 slice of cheese.
  • Whisk egg white lightly; brush over outsides of breasts. Press each breast all over into cornflake crumbs until coated.
  • Heat oil in a heavy ovenproof skillet over medium heat; brown breasts, turning once, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to oven; roast for 10 minutes to finish cooking.

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Posted by on January 15, 2015 in grouse, recipe, Wawang Lake Resort

 

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Grouse Pot Pie

31 Dec

pieThis isn’t so much a pie as it is a stew, but the baking powder biscuits certainly give it the look, feel and flavour of a good ol’ homemade meat pie. Of course, you can forgo the biscuits. Either way, it tastes great.

Serves: 6

Ingredients

  • 3 ruffed grouse breasts, bone attached
  • 1 celery stalk, sliced
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • 1 carrot, sliced
  • 1 tbsp pickling spice
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 4 cups water
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 celery stalks, sliced
  • 2 carrots, sliced
  • 3-4 potatoes, peeled and cubed
  • 3/4 cup frozen peas
  • 2 tbsp cornstarch
  • Salt and black pepper, to taste
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/4 cup cold lard (or shortening)
  • 2/3 cup cold milk

Preparation

  • Stock

  • Place all the ingredients in a large saucepan or stockpot; cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes.
  • Take out breasts; debone and cube meat, then set aside. Strain cooking liquid, discarding solids. Reserve 1 cup of liquid and return remaining stock to saucepan.

  • Stew

  • Add vegetables to stock in saucepan. Return to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes; vegetables should still be firm. Stir in cubed grouse; return to simmer.
  • Whisk together cornstarch and reserved cup of stock; stir into pot and simmer until stew is thickened. Season with salt and pepper, then transfer to baking dish.

  • Baking powder biscuits

  • Preheat oven to 375°F. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt, then cut in lard using two knives or a pastry blender. Add milk and lightly mix until evenly moistened (the less mixing, the more tender the biscuits).
  • On a lightly floured surface, gently knead for just a few turns until dough holds together. Pat out to ¾-inch thickness and cut into 2-inch circles.
  • Top stew with biscuits; bake until biscuits are golden brown on top and the bottoms are not doughy (about 25 minutes). If you choose to omit the biscuits, simply cover casserole dish with a lid and bake for 20 minutes.

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Posted by on December 31, 2014 in grouse, recipe, Wawang Lake Resort

 

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