The capercaillie is the largest bird in our forests. Capercaillie is considered a desirable trophy among hunters. The taste qualities are excellent, but like all game, the meat is dry and dense, so the wood grouse is always carcassed in different ways, here is one of the options.

Ingredients for Capercaillie Stewed in Cream:

Recipe for capercaillie stewed in cream:

The carcass of an average capercaillie in net weight is approximately 3 to 4 kg. Paws and wings were removed for taxidermic purposes, but the meat was cut off from them and returned to the carcass :) Autumn capercaillie is better than spring. It smells good and requires almost no soaking. It feeds on lingonberries, so the smell is doubly pleasant.

Next, I cut out almost all the bones, they are large and it makes no sense to fill the dishes with them. Especially for all the bones and trimmings, the dog said a huge thank you to me. The meat resembles veal in color, without a special specific smell of needles, for which it is valued. After cutting into pieces, I soak the meat for a couple of hours in cold water, changing the water several times.

Salt and add spices. I have ready-made homemade mixes, but you can add everything separately in a ground or pounded form. These are garlic, coriander, paprika, chili, peas and allspice, basil, ginger, nutmeg. If you don’t have something, it doesn’t matter, you can get by with traditional spices for meat. The meat of the capercaillie is pleasant, it does not need to be hammered with their taste. I added three teaspoons of the spice mix.

A few hours in the marinade and you can fry the pieces in a pan. There was not even a drop of dry wine at hand, but in general, it is better to add a glass of dry red wine to the marinade. Dry the meat before frying.

Put in a saucepan or form, chop the carrots and pour 1 box of cream 500 ml, I also added some water there. Pour olive oil on top. You can stuff pieces of lard instead of butter. If there is no oven or stewpan, the meat can be cooked simply in a saucepan, or in an original way - in a cast iron in the oven.

It is important that the meat is stewed-languished (!), i.e. boiled in cream, and not baked. And so for almost 3 hours. During this time, I added two more boxes of cream with butter, diluted with a little water. The meat gurgled in this sauce and bubbled, stirred and poured over the resulting sauce.

If there is a hunter in the house, then capercaillie meat is not uncommon on the table. Capercaillie meat has a juicy taste and dark red color, it is dense, with a coniferous flavor. Knowing how to cook capercaillie at home in a variety of ways, you can only prepare the carcass during the hunt so that the meat does not deteriorate.

How to cook game: we process capercaillie for further cooking

All recipes provide that the game is already prepared for cooking. To do this, the capercaillie must be plucked and cleaned.

The carcass is not plucked immediately, it must cool, for this it is hung up for blowing. Some hunters advise hanging an unplucked bird for 2-3 days by the head. The taste of meat will improve significantly when the head itself comes off under the weight of the body.

Directly in nature, you can prepare the carcass for further processing: pluck, singe, cut off the legs and ends of the wings, as well as the head. Some prefer to gut the game immediately, while other hunters do it immediately before cooking.

Gutted capercaillie is easily heat-treated at home, and the taste of the dish improves markedly if the bird has been soaked in a bite for 10 hours.

What can be prepared from capercaillie?

There are various recipes. There are several ways to cook capercaillie deliciously:

• bake in the oven;
• cook in a cauldron;
• cook in a slow cooker;
• make meatballs;
• cut lettuce.

Capercaillie in the oven

This is the simplest recipe that requires minimal effort from the cook.

Would need:

• capercaillie meat;
• pork fat 300 g;
• 2 apples;
• 2 medium sized potatoes;
• onion head;
• 200 g of mayonnaise or sour cream;
• 1 tablespoon of mustard;
• 1 teaspoon of sugar;
• 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs;
• 2 tablespoons spices for meat.

Before cooking the whole capercaillie in the oven, the carcass must be gutted. Cooking steps:

1. First, the filling is prepared. Apples and whole potatoes are cut into small pieces, onions - into half rings. Everything is mixed, salt, black pepper are added. The filling fits tightly into the carcass.
2. Foil is placed on a baking sheet, game is placed on it.
3. Now the mixture is being prepared to coat the capercaillie and add juiciness to the dish. The game is spread on all sides with a mixture of mayonnaise or sour cream with mustard.
4. Spices and breadcrumbs are mixed, this is sprinkled on the bird.
5. The lard, cut into thin layers, is wrapped around the capercaillie. Salo will make the meat more juicy.
6. Capercaillie is wrapped in foil, a glass of water or dry red wine is added, and placed in the oven. Bake for at least 4-6 hours, checking the amount of liquid and topping up if necessary.
7. 20-30 minutes before the end of cooking, the foil is removed - then the meat will be golden brown.

Delicious and easy!

There is another option - you can refuse the foil and bake the capercaillie, after chopping the carcass into pieces, in an open baking sheet. In this case, the bird must sometimes be turned over and topped up with water.

Baking in dough

To do this, you can take ready-made puff-yeast dough and wrap game prepared in it, as already described. The dough should not dry out, so a cup of water is placed in the oven. In the dough, you can even bake capercaillie with bones. This recipe makes it possible to make a tasty and easy poultry dish.

Roasting on the rack

1. The capercaillie is cut along the breast, the halves are placed on the wire rack.
2. The spread out halves are salted, spread with a mixture of sour cream and mustard.
3. The game is placed directly on the grate of the preheated oven. Below, under the bird, a baking sheet filled with hot water is placed.
4. Until the bird is reddened, the fire is not reduced. And after the appearance of the crust, reduce the heat and, without opening the lid of the oven, so as not to release the heat, bake for an hour. It turns out delicious and beautiful.

Nuances

Knowing how to cook capercaillie in the oven, you can experiment with the filling, use marinated plums or mushrooms for this to make it tasty and unusual.

To check if the dish is ready, you need to pierce the carcass from the side of the breast in the thickest place. Juice will stand out from the hole - transparent, without any traces of blood.

Capercaillie in a slow cooker - this is possible in every kitchen!

A slow cooker is a universal kitchen unit that allows you to cook wild capercaillie meat very tasty and quickly.

Required for the dish:

• 1 capercaillie;
• onion - 2 pcs.;
• lingonberries (you can take frozen) - 3 cups;
• flour - 2 tbsp. l.;
• vegetable oil - 100 g;
• various spices for meat;
• pork fat - 100 g.

How to cook capercaillie in a slow cooker:

1. Training. The broth is cooked from pre-cut legs, wings, neck.
2. The bird is cut into portions.
3. Each piece of capercaillie is stuffed with lard, salted, sprinkled with spices.
4. The meat is fried in a slow cooker on the “Frying” mode with the lid open for 10 minutes. Periodically, the pieces must be turned over for even frying.
5. After the meat, the onion, cut into half rings, is fried in the same fat for 10 minutes.
6. When the onion is cooked, pieces of poultry are placed on it, everything is poured with broth, the “Stew” program is set, the standard time is 1 hour.
7. When the capercaillie begins to smell delicious, lingonberries and flour previously diluted in water are added 10 minutes before the end of the program.

This recipe allows you to cook poultry meat without the hassle and tasty. Serve capercaillie prepared in this way, well with boiled potatoes, various cereals, pouring sauce over the side dish.

How to cook capercaillie in a cauldron

You can surprise your family and cook an unusual hunting soup from capercaillie in a cauldron.

You will need:

• bird carcass;
• 3-5 pcs. onion;
• 3-5 pcs. carrots;
• 10-15 potatoes;
• vegetable oil 50 g;
• parsley;
• black peppercorns, salt;
• adjika.

It is delicious to make capercaillie soup simply, even a novice cook will be able to do it!

Cooking steps:

1. The carcass is placed in a cauldron, cold water is added, 1 carrot and onion each, put on fire.
2. When the water boils, the foam should be regularly removed from the broth. Cooked game over medium heat for 40 minutes.
3. Onions should be cut, carrots grated. In a preheated pan in oil, first the onion is fried until a pleasant golden color, then carrots are added to it and all together are fried for another 10 minutes.
4. The bird boiled for 40 minutes, after which it must be pulled out, cut into portions and put back into the cauldron.
5. Chopped potatoes are added, everything is cooked for another 10 minutes.
6. Vegetable frying is added, everything is cooked for 10-15 minutes.
7. Salt, pepper, parsley, adjika are added to taste and boil again for 10 minutes. Everything is ready, you can turn off the fire.
8. After the cauldron is removed from the fire, it should stand for 10-20 minutes and sweat under a closed lid. It will be very tasty!

Nuances

It is not necessary to marinate meat in such conditions, so as not to spoil the taste of the soup.

How to cook capercaillie game deliciously so that the meat is soft? Lemon juice can be added to water at the rate of 1 liter - 1 tablespoon.

When cooking, you need to count on 1 kg of game - 2 liters of water.

Some cooks advise to chop the capercaillie into portioned pieces right away and even lightly fry them beforehand, and only after that put them in a cauldron and start cooking the soup.

Game cutlets: minced capercaillie

An excellent recipe is capercaillie cutlets. Even capricious children will eat such a dish! It is easy to prepare, and the taste of capercaillie meat diversifies the table for dinner or lunch.

You will need:

• meat of 1 capercaillie;
• lard 300-350 g;
• white bread - 200 g;
• onions - 4 pcs.;
• 1 egg;
• garlic - 1/2 head;
• salt pepper.

How to cook capercaillie for cutlets?

1. The carcass is disassembled, while the meat must be carefully separated from the bones.
2. Capercaillie meat is twisted in a meat grinder.
3. In a meat grinder, lard, onions and bread are twisted.
4. Garlic is squeezed out on a garlic press and added to the minced meat.
5. Salt, pepper, egg are put.
6. Everything is mixed up.
7. Cutlets are formed and fried for 15 minutes until a delicious crust appears.

Nuances

The combination of dry capercaillie meat with pork fat gives the cutlets softness and tenderness. However, lard can be replaced with minced pork.

Capercaillie is a rare bird both in realistic hunting dreams and on the hunter's belt. But if such luck happens - a capercaillie in a game bag net, then you need to cook it carefully and with skill. So that improper preparation does not spoil hard-to-get prey and your mood.

Due to the relative exoticism of this bird, not everyone is aware how best to cook it so that the dish is not only edible, but also a pleasure.

Taste features of capercaillie

Poultry meat is dark and juicy, tasty, but somewhat harsh.

The season of the year greatly influences the shades of its taste., what the bird ate before becoming prey. In autumn, she eats her favorite berry - lingonberries, respectively, and the meat has its flavor., yes, such that when using it, you can do without the sauce!

However in autumn, when snow falls, the bird feeds only on needles, and by spring the meat acquires its obvious taste. Therefore, the spring capercaillie requires additional processing that removes this taste.

Features of cooking capercaillie

They are mainly associated with flavor correction capercaillie meat, as well as with removing its rigidity.

An important secret-nuance: to improve the taste of meat, you need at the very beginning, after the slaughter of the bird, in an unplucked and gutted form, hang it by the head for two or three days in a cool place. So the meat is fermented and becomes tender.

The second important point- before cooking, the carcass is soaked in vinegar.

A bird caught in the fall can not be soaked - precisely because of its “lingonberry” saturation, however in the spring, capercaillie must be soaked for one to two days before cooking to eliminate its bitter coniferous aftertaste. Cowberry juice can be added to vinegar. To improve the taste of the prepared dish, red wine is added to it during the cooking process.

Because the in upland bird, unlike domestic and waterfowl, practically no fat its meat is very dry. To eliminate this property, the carcass is chopped with finely chopped slices of lard.

Due to its toughness, the meat is cooked for about three hours., and sometimes more (depending on the method of preparation). The dish should be watered with the meat juice formed on the baking sheet at intervals of ten to fifteen minutes.

Cooking capercaillie in the field

In the field, you can cook capercaillie for a short time. For this, you do not need to marinate it. The killed bird is simply opened, gutted, processed inside with pepper and salt, you can also chop off its limbs.

Two or three potatoes are chopped inside the carcass. It is necessary to coat it all with watery clay, turning it into "chrysalis". The fire is burned to such a state that hot coals can completely cover the "chrysalis".

Having pierced two holes in the clay for steam to escape, it is necessary to keep the carcass on the fire for about twenty minutes. Then the “chrysalis” should be split, like an earthenware jug. Bird in this way keeps the juice, feathers depart along with clay cuttings.

Other methods for field conditions

Because the boiled capercaillie is not as tasty as baked or fried, you can cook it in a "romantic" way - bake it over a fire, putting the carcass on a skewer. But some patience will be required, since it will take a long time to turn the spit over the fire - three hours or more. Otherwise, the carcass may not be baked.

On a hike, you can also put out a cut into pieces bird in a cauldron. Set aside the cleaned stomach, heart, liver, paws, wings, and neck separately. Of these, you can boil the broth, filling it with potatoes, cereals or noodles.

Dividing the carcass into six parts, salt them and stuff them with bacon sticks. Pricked with a fork, fry every 2-3 minutes over a fire until the crusting phase.

Putting the pieces in a cauldron, add fat or oil, 1 cup of lingonberries or cranberries and 2 cups of broth. You can add blueberries or blueberries, but they give the meat blackness. Simmer everything in a cauldron over low heat for 40 minutes.

The pieces can then again be “dry” on a fork over coals. And in the juice remaining in the boiler, boil the potatoes for a side dish.

Cooking capercaillie at home

When inviting guests home “for capercaillie”, do not forget that it takes a long time to prepare, do everything in advance. At home, you can bake a capercaillie in the oven (best of all - in the oven), after stuffing the carcass with small slices of lard, or you can just fry it.

How to cook capercaillie in the oven

When cutting the bird is plucked, the insides are taken out of it. Paws, wings, head must be cut off. The carcass is washed and placed in a bowl with saline solution, placed in a cool place for 10 hours, after which it is washed with clean water.

If the capercaillie is spring, it can be coated on top with chopped celery, dill, parsley and let the carcass brew for several hours, this eliminates the coniferous smell. You can, as mentioned above, soak the bird in vinegar with added lingonberry juice. Before placing in the oven - stuff with stuffing and stuff with lard.

For filling you need to take 2 potatoes and 2 apples, pork fat 300 gr., one onion, a teaspoon of sugar, 150 gr. sour cream or mayonnaise, Art. a spoonful of mustard. You will also need breadcrumbs - 2 tbsp. spoons and seasoning for meat or spices - 2 tbsp. spoons. (As a filling, if desired, you can also use pickled apples, plums, mushrooms.)

• Apples are cut into cubes, turnips - into half rings. All you need to mix, pepper and salt, add sugar.
• Stuff the prepared carcass this mixture, put on a thick foil, laid out on the table.
• Coat the bird a mixture of mustard and sour cream or mustard and mayonnaise.
• The carcass is sprinkled on top a mixture of meat seasoning and breadcrumbs.
• Thin slices of pork bacon cover the entire surface of the carcass.
• After wrapping the capercaillie with several layers of foil, bake in a deep baking sheet, adding a little water to it beforehand. Bake for 4-6 hours(depending on the age of the bird). Periodically add water to the pan, and along the way - one glass of dry red wine.
• Half an hour before completion During the process, the foil should be removed so that the meat is browned.

Other ways to cook capercaillie at home

Fried capercaillie has excellent taste, so you can cook it as a festive dish.

First, as usual, soak capercaillie in a vinegar solution for at least 10 hours, the solution can be boiled with spices.

Need oil - 2 tbsp. spoons, bacon - 100 gr., sour cream - half a glass, a little grated roll or crackers.

Stuffed carcass 100 gr. fat fry on a baking sheet, periodically pouring oil. When the juice starts to stand out, pour over the meat with juice, and then with sour cream.

After final watering sprinkle capercaillie with dry grated bun or breadcrumbs. Ten minutes later when the topping is browned, put the meat on a board, cut into pieces, transfer to a dish and pour strained sauce on top. If the food served cold, then you do not need to add sour cream.

Bon appetit and new hunting success!

Who is interested in the answer to the question of how to cook capercaillie? If you thought that only the hunter needs to know this, then this will not be entirely correct.

Of course, in most cases, this question is asked by the one who got this bird, but there are many different places where the capercaillie is served on the table to dear visitors. For example, this is the most ordinary restaurant.

Real professionals work here, who know a lot of recipes for cooking game, so the issue with capercaillie is always closed for them, because everything has already been worked out.

What about the most ordinary housewife, whom her husband brought capercaillie from hunting? It’s not every day that you come across such meat, so thoughts immediately arise in your head about how to cook capercaillie for your husband so that it’s delicious.

It should be noted right away that such meat cannot be compared with ordinary chicken and cooked according to the same recipes, because it has its own specificity and special taste.

For example, in appearance it has a dark shade and significant rigidity, which is inherent in any game. According to the internal composition, this game has a large amount of vitamins that bring the nervous system back to normal.

In addition, its taste characteristics have a certain bitter taste, which must be combated by soaking in a special solution. For people with problems of the digestive system, such meat will only benefit.

How to cook capercaillie with a juicy and tasty dish?

Article content:

Almost every game should be pre-cooked before cooking to make it more tasty and tender, because in its original state it has a peculiar flavor that not everyone likes.

If we talk about capercaillie, then it can have a different taste depending on the season. For example, in autumn, its meat has a lingonberry flavor, since it mainly eats lingonberries at this time.

With the onset of winter or spring, the meat develops a bitter taste, which occurs due to the fact that the capercaillie eats a lot of needles. Thus, it is recommended to engage in the preparation of autumn capercaillie, if there is a choice.

Many chefs recommend soaking capercaillie in vinegar solution for one or two days. The solution is prepared in the proportion of 1 part vinegar and 2 parts water. If the bird is harvested in autumn, then the soaking process is not always required.

The carcass will need to be chopped into pieces of fat to eliminate dryness. The cooking process itself usually takes about three hours or more.

To make poultry meat more tender, some recommend hanging a capercaillie by the head immediately after production. After 2-3 days, the head may come off under weight or not, but in any case, it should not be kept for more time.

After that, its gutting and preparation for soaking or cooking begins. This option for handling game meat can be argued, but it exists.

Cooking capercaillie in the oven

Roasting game at high temperatures is a common recipe among hobbyists that has gained popularity over the years.

Required Ingredients:

• capercaillie carcass - 1 pc.;
• apples - 2 pcs.;
• fat will need 300 g;
• onions - 1 head;
• potatoes in the amount of 2 pcs.;
• mayonnaise will need 150 g;
• breadcrumbs, sugar, regular meat seasoning and mustard.

Cooking process

1. First of all, the capercaillie should be plucked, and then gutted all the insides. The head, paws and wings must be cut off.
2. Now the carcass must be soaked in a salt solution for ten hours. This should be done in a cool room. In addition, the soaking procedure can be done according to the recommendations that were discussed a little higher.
3. Take potatoes, onions and apples. They should be finely chopped, moved and add salt, sugar, pepper. Now stuff the capercaillie carcass with all this mixture.
4. Next, you need a dense foil, on which you need to put a capercaillie. Make a mixture of mustard and mayonnaise, which then spread the carcass.
5. Breadcrumbs and spices should be mixed in a container in equal proportions. Then they need to sprinkle the meat.
6. Lard must be laid around on a baking sheet, which must first be cut into pieces. The moment has come when the whole carcass must be wrapped in foil and placed in the oven.
7. Cooking time for capercaillie takes about five hours. The temperature in the oven should be 170-190 degrees. Every 15-20 minutes, the carcass should be turned over and poured on top of the juice that is released during the cooking process. In addition, you can periodically even add water.

Cooking capercaillie in a slow cooker

Nowadays, there are multicookers in almost every home, so you can’t ignore the cooking of capercaillie in this particular kitchen appliance.

Required Ingredients:

• capercaillie carcass - 1 pc.;
• cranberries in the amount of 3 glasses;
• flour - 2 tablespoons;
• onions - 3 heads;
• sunflower oil - 100 g;
• lard, salt and spices.

Cooking process

1. The neck, legs and wings will not be needed at first, so they need to be cut off immediately. Everything else needs to be cut into pieces. Make sure that you get six pieces that should be stuffed with bacon, salt, add spices and fry in a pan.
2. Next, we make the broth from the legs, wings and neck. At the end of cooking the broth, put onions, and then finish cooking it.
3. Now all the meat should be placed in a slow cooker, where you need to pour the broth, but without legs, wings and head.
4. The next step is to close the lid of the multicooker and turn on the extinguishing mode. It takes about 60 minutes to cook the meat.
5. When 25 minutes remain until the end of cooking, then you need to take and add lingonberries with flour, which you dilute in water. Everything needs to be mixed well.

Cooking on the go

When you are on the hunt, there is no time to pickle the capercaillie carcass and do other actions that are aimed at improving the taste of meat.

There is a recipe that allows you to minimize the number of actions and cook capercaillie right in nature. To do this, you just need to gut the bird and cut off its legs. Don't touch the feathers.

Rub the inside of the carcass with salt and pepper. Take three potatoes and stick them inside the bird. Now you need to take liquid clay and anoint the entire capercaillie so that it becomes completely wrapped in it.

There should be so many coals in the fire that they completely cover the capercaillie in clay. Next, two holes should be made to let the steam out. It takes about 20 minutes to cook this game in this way.

Now the clay needs to be split in order to get to the meat and start eating it. If you are worried about feathers, then you should not, because they move away from the carcass along with the clay.

Conclusion

You can cook capercaillie meat not only in comfortable home conditions, but also in nature, when only the most necessary things are at hand.

According to its composition, this meat is considered very useful, since it significantly improves brain function and accelerates protein synthesis. If a person has problems with nerves, then the use of this game normalizes the entire system.

Most often they prefer to cook wood grouse in the oven, but there are many other recipes that also allow you to feel the whole taste and aroma of game.

Capercaillie - an honorary trophy of a hunter. Now this bird is rare. Catching it is strictly licensed. Capercaillie-roosters (weighing up to 6 kg) are especially highly valued. They are easily recognizable by their colorful plumage and characteristic "beard" under the beak. But chickens are also eaten (they weigh about 3 kg). Sometimes in the store you can get a frozen capercaillie carcass. But it also happens that as a result of a successful hunt or as a present, this rare bird comes to you uncut. What to do with this closest relative of the chicken, and what kind of capercaillie dish to cook?

The meat of this bird is juicy, dark. It is absolutely not like unleavened chicken and has an unusual aroma of pine needles. In addition, it is more rigid. It is customary for hunters not to "kill" the coniferous aroma, but to enjoy it. In the middle of the forest, they gut the carcass, coat it with clay and bake it in an earthen pit in coals. But at home, a capercaillie dish requires a more careful approach. To marinate it beforehand. This procedure is mandatory for frozen carcasses, since the bitter note of pine needles is enhanced in it.

If a wood grouse came to you as a sort of handsome man - in feathers and not gutted, then in this form it should be hung by the head or tail in a cool place. When in a day or two the carcass falls to the floor under its own weight, it is considered that it is ready for further processing. There are numerous of wood grouse. It is boiled, fried, stewed. The easiest way is to bake the whole thing in the oven. Grilled capercaillie is no less tasty.

Whatever we do with a bird, it must first be plucked and gutted. The neck, paws and wings will fit in the broth. We cut the rest of the carcass into large pieces and marinate (for example, in wine). A capercaillie dish will turn out more tender if we use lard bars. Now let's look at how to put out a bird. Dip the stuffed pieces in and fry over the coals until a crust appears. Then we put a pot with vegetable oil over the fire, we pass 2-3 chopped onions in it. We put pieces of meat and pour a liter of broth cooked in advance. Simmer for at least an hour, or even longer. When the meat is almost ready, we put two or three cups of cranberries or lingonberries into the capercaillie dish. Add just enough flour to thicken the broth like a sauce.

Another way to cook a forest dweller is to bake. Despite the variety of recipes, all capercaillie dishes in the oven are prepared somewhat similarly. A whole carcass is stuffed with lard and stuffed with fillings. Sometimes the meat is cut into pieces and hidden in puff pastry. Toppings may be different. Here is some of them. Fry the skin removed from the bird, as well as the liver and heart in fat. Sauté the onion in butter until golden. Pour 200 grams of rice, fry a little until it acquires a glassy tint, then pour in water. Salt, season with spices. Mix the finished rice with pre-soaked raisins and chopped herbs. Another filling is liver. Boil 100 g of mushrooms, decant, cool. We pass a little veal liver through a meat grinder. Add a bun soaked in milk, pounded white butter, two eggs, mushrooms to the minced meat. Season to taste with salt and spices.