CONSUMING INTEREST
Game lore
LESLIE ADRIAN
Mr Philip Harben once wrote, for entertain- ment rather than enlightenment, that there were really only two sorts of people in the civilised world: those who adored grouse and those who hated it. I fit into neither category. My passions, though often con- suming, have never been aroused by this particular bird. Generally I can take it or leave it with equal calm. Last week, with quite remarkable calm. 1 took it; twice.
The first time, it was brought me in a brown paper parcel by a friend who said grandly that her uncle had shot it in Scotland. She did not know, and there was no label to indicate, the date of the killing. So how long the thing had been hung was a mystery, not to be solved by the olfactory sense alone. But, if one has to err, it is better to do so on the side of mildness. When Mrs Beeton advised her readers in 1868 to let the birds hang as long as possible', she was guilty of some termino- logical inexactitude. A week to ten days— less if the weather is warm, less still if it is thundery --is plenty for putrefaction to begin or in more romantic language, for perfect tenderness and flavour to be achieved. Once the tail feathers start coming away easily when pulled, you have to be a masochist or a vulgarian to want the bird any higher. Eat it, or put it in the deep freeze (but don't, I solemnly advise you. hang it once it's been frozen).
Of course, if you buy grouse from the shop, the odds are that they will not only have been hung but also made ready to cook; whereas, if you are given a present. you are also presented with a series of delicate operating problems. Your friendl- neighbourhood poulterer may be willing tt help out with these. But should you lac, one (as I did last week), be very wary e seductive short cuts. 1 have yet to see • cookery book which actually said that garr birds didn't need to be plucked; bt'
several authorities try to persuade you th• the entrails haven't to be drawn, nor tt
insides washed, nor the outsides trusse Charan d sir chacunerie Follow these pat' if you will. But don't say you weren't warn off. Young birds--and you can always t them from the softness and pliability of 0- feet and the breastbone—are for roastinj
and the art consists in keeping them moi.
In particular, the breast should be covere with bacon, and a large piece of seasone butter (or, some people say, cranberrie bilberries or wild raspberries, if you can gr them) should be stuffed inside. The over must be hot —400 degrees F, gas 6--any according to size and your taste, the grous will take between twenty and thirty-fly minutes. I had decided on a full half-hou for my first of the season and set the alarr to go off a bit earlier, giving time to mas the liver on to hot buttered toast and put it underneath. Messy and tiring work. What about a quick, hot bath?
An hour and a quarter later I awoke to
a smell of burning in the bathroom and a scene of desolation in the kitchen. 'Heaven sends us good meat, but the Devil sends us cooks'. There seemed only one sensible thing to do: having disposed of the charred remains, to trundle along to the Savoy Grill and command a second grouse. It was good. But so it jolly well ought to have been, more than three weeks after the Twelfth, at 55s a time.
Now for a different grouse, if I may be permitted the obvious pun. This is about a new 'polemical textbook'—Consumers and the Economy (Harrap 25s)—by Frank Knox, at one time a research officer on the staff of the Consumer Council. Mr Knox publishes a table showing circulation figures of fifteen consumer test magazines taken from a 1964 international directory. Talk about last year's Bradshaw! 'Increased circulation since that date should be borne in mind in interpreting the table', he has hastily inserted in the text; but how can students bear it in mind when he has not troubled to measure or tell them its magnitude? From 55,000 to over 200,000 in tiny Holland. From 17,1)00 to nearly 100,000 in tinier Belgium. These are not, as in Britain and America, differences in degree; they are more like the reflection of a consumer revolution. What is it, I wonder, about this corner of Europe that makes it so consumer-conscious? Proximity to our grouse?
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