Ptarmigan Recipe - Pan Roasted Ptarmigan | Hank Shaw (2024)

FAQs

What is the best way to cook ptarmigan? ›

Grouse and ptarmigan can be prepared many ways. They can be grilled, fried, baked, or slow cooked in a crock pot. If you're interested in grilling, marinade the breasts and thighs in your favorite marinade for 24 hours. Slowly cook the breasts on a medium heat grill to avoid overcooking and drying out the meat.

The bird in the pictures is a white-tailed ptarmigan from Colorado. They are all birds of cold, forbidding places, and are all dark meat that is strongly flavored. Do not serve ptarmigan to people who only like skinless chicken breasts. They are an eater's bird, full of flavor and slightly funky, as all grouse are.

Female White-tailed Ptarmigan are smaller than Spruce Grouse and tend to occur in open tundra rather than spruce forests. They are paler than Spruce Grouse, shorter-tailed, and lack white markings on the belly.

The three species are all sedentary specialists of cold regions. Willow ptarmigan is a circumpolar boreal forest species, white-tailed ptarmigan is a North American alpine bird, and rock ptarmigan breeds in both Arctic and mountain habitats across Eurasia and North America.

Ptarmigan and grouse meat are excellent sources of protein. Protein keeps us healthy by building and repairing our muscles, skin and blood as well as helping us fight sickness. Ptarmigan meat is an excellent source of iron. One serving provides 50% of the iron we need in a day.

A distinctive feature of ptarmigan is their feathered feet, which help them negotiate the frozen ground. Ptarmigan turn white in winter and brown in summer. Unlike other grouse, some male rock ptarmigan help raise the young, defending them against predators.

Do Ptarmigans have any natural predators? Ptarmigans are prey to owls, foxes, and lynx.

The word ptarmigan is from the Scottish Gaelic “tàrmachan,” the old name for Willow Ptarmigan in the northern British Isles. The “p” was added to the name because early ornithologists thought that the word was Greek in origin.

The silent initial p was added in 1684 by Robert Sibbald through the influence of Greek, especially pteron (πτερόν pterón), "wing", "feather", or "pinion".

Range and Habitat

Willow ptarmigan also live in Canada, Scotland, Scandinavia, and Russia. In Southeast Alaska, several trails lead to ptarmigan country from roads close to Juneau.

How do you pronounce the word ptarmigan? ›

3 syllables: "TAA" + "mi" + "guhn"

Look for Rock Ptarmigan in rocky, dry areas of tundra, typically at least 7–10 miles away from towns. They are fairly common and, until the June molt, white males stand out against the tundra from a very long way away. The males' vocalizations also make them an easy bird to find in spring.

Year-round, White-tailed Ptarmigan live in alpine heath or tundra habitats, mostly above treeline, to elevations exceeding 14,000 feet. Their range extends from Alaska to New Mexico, in open, mostly treeless areas with scattered lichen-covered rocks. Most vegetation is a foot high or less.

In winter the woods and frozen swamps are filled with ptarmigan—or, as they are called by the trappers, white partridges.

Dry cookery methods, such as frying, are appropriate for young birds. Moist cookery methods, such as stewing or braising, are appropriate for older birds. To decrease the distinctive taste of some wild game, trim off as much of the fat as possible. Older or skinned birds may become dry during baking.

Ptarmigan eggs were traditionally eaten in the Yukon; however in later years, eggs were considered by some as “l*ttle babies” and were left where they are found [57, 68]. Ptarmigan eggs were sometimes sought by the Hare in spring. They were usually boiled [64].

The birds feed, records Bewick, "on the wild productions of the hills, which sometimes give the flesh a bitter, but not unpalatable taste: it is dark coloured, and has somewhat the flavour of the hare."