Pan-fried ptarmigan

As tradition built it

Pan-fried ptarmigan

Brian Person, North Slope Borough

Ingredients

• 1 ptarmigan ptarmigan meat, off the bone
• 1 egg, beaten
• about 20 (Ritz or Club) crackers, crushed
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• 1 to 2 tsp granulated garlic
• 1 to 2 tbsp butter, for frying

Method

1. Dip the ptarmigan meat, off the bone, in beaten egg.
2. Coat in crushed crackers seasoned with salt, pepper and granulated garlic.
3. Rest 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Fry in butter until golden.

Notes

Ptarmigan carries roughly twice the iron of caribou meat and is markedly leaner than chicken.

What a modern chef changes

Grouse crown with a fine breadcrumb crust

Method

1. Ptarmigan is legally shootable in Scotland but this chapter's own sourcing research could not find a single UK retailer or game dealer actually selling it: substitute grouse, itself genuinely seasonal, fresh late August to early November.
2. Bone out a grouse crown and brine briefly.
3. Follow the traditional method closely: egg wash, then a cracker crust, but use a fine dry breadcrumb made from crushed water biscuits pulsed with a little dried thyme, pressed on rather than dredged, for a thinner, more even crust than the original's crushed-cracker method gives.
4. Rest, then shallow-fry in clarified butter, exactly as the tradition specifies, rather than switching to a neutral oil the source method never called for.