The Glorious 12th

[Duke Malcolm]

Yes, it may be 2 days late, but I was busy.
The Glorious 12th was on Saturday, as we all know, when the hunters are on the moors, when the greatest restaurants and hotels race to see which can be the first to serve up grouse.

But it has not been so Glorious in recent years.

The Scotsman

So, if climate change gives more mild winters, could this be the end of the Glorious Twelfth?

[Vladimir]

I've never went bird hunting with air rifles before. Is it difficult?

[Red Peasant]

I've never went bird hunting with air rifles before. Is it difficult?

It is for the birds!

[Duke Malcolm]

I've never went bird hunting with air rifles before. Is it difficult?

I do not know, I am not yet old enough to purchase either an actual or an air rifle yet. It is just one of many of my aspirations...

[English assassin]

You don't shoot game birds with air rifles, you use shotguns. You can't take a bird on the wing with an air rifle.

when the greatest restaurants and hotels race to see which can be the first to serve up grouse.

...to idiots. Game needs to be hung for weeks. Grouse should NOT appear on a menu before about mid september. I'm sorry, but some things must be done properly. The bird died that we may eat it, it should be treated with respect. The other thing with waiting until september is you can have native oysters to start, yum.

The only thing stupider than racing to eat the first grouse of the season is racing to drink the first beaujolais nouveau. There must be a use for beaujolais nouveau but I'm not sure what, some sort of solvent maybe.

[Vladimir]

Well I'm not sure if I want my food hanging around for a while rotting before I eat it. My other choice was to make a joke about the stomach parasite precluding one from eating grouse haggis.

[English assassin]

Rotten food is the best, cheese, wine, game, where would we be without rot? (though I draw the line at hakarl http://www.isholf.is/gullis/jo/shark.htm)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Take one large shark, gut and discard the innards, the cartilage and the head. Cut flesh into large pieces.Wash in running water to get all slime and blood off. Dig a large hole in coarse gravel, preferably down by the sea and far from the nearest inhabited house - this is to make sure the smell doesn't bother anybody. Put in the shark pieces, and press them well together

Get the picture?

[Tribesman]

Well I'm not sure if I want my food hanging around for a while rotting before I eat it.
Vlad , what meat do you eat that isn't hung ?

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Well I'm not sure if I want my food hanging around for a while rotting before I eat it. My other choice was to make a joke about the stomach parasite precluding one from eating grouse haggis.

Its not really rot. Some people do take it to that extreme but grouse and pheasant have to be hung for several days at least, otherwise they are ineddible.

[Vladimir]

I've had fresh pheasant and it's quite good. I haven't tried grouse though so it may indeed be like shark.

[Red Peasant]

Lol! So EA only eats 'well-hung meat'. Ooh-err!

[Al Khalifah]

Lol! So EA only eats 'well-hung meat'. Ooh-err!

You went there...

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

I've had fresh pheasant and it's quite good. I haven't tried grouse though so it may indeed be like shark.

Really? I you sure it was actually fresh? Generally its tough and tasteless.

Maybe it was beaten first, that can make meat more palatable and free some of the flavour.

[Tribesman]

Wigferth , you have it there , any meat that needs beating is meat that hasn't been hung long enough .
So next time you see someone beating a steak tell him to go to a decent butcher .

[English assassin]

Lol! So EA only eats 'well-hung meat'. Ooh-err!

Nice one, although I think Cannon and Ball might be in touch about royalties...

Anyway, so my meat is well hung, and I don't need to beat my meat. Both of these are good things.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Ah, men after my own heart.

Nothing like five day old lamb from you're own fields.