The solution proposed by Niven and Pournelle is unsatisfactory: it simply makes no sense. Firstly, crottled greeps implies they are greeps prepared by that particular method; yet the greeps arrive alive and apparently in their natural state. How then can one assert these to be an order of crottled greeps? Based on the story's explication of crottling it would seem more reasonable that such an order would arrive with the greeps pre-impaled and -tailed. Secondly, why would anybody invent the term crottling and thence crottling fork for what is a straightforward and ordinary stabbing, or spearing, or impalement, or any of the numerous other action nouns available for this already ubiquitous action? This is an absurdity, and also has a whiff of circularity: it's called crottling because one uses the crottling fork, which is so called since one uses it for crottling, which... I find that the authors have simply dodged the essential difficulty (and potential) in the term, which is cheap and unimaginative.
However, their concept does contain the germ of a good idea. I propose the following, for the use of whatever hack should want to pinch it: the greeps in their natural state are too swift and too vicious to be dealt with as in The Gripping Hand; when prepared for table, therefore, they are presented live, but intoxicated with crottle, a herb which upon ingestion acts on a greep approximately as inhaled catnip does on a cat. This allows the spearing of the crottled greep with the (sensibly renamed) greep-fork and ideally also alters the flavor in an agreeable way (although one can imagine a variant where the effect on the taste is detrimental, causing real gastronomes to lament the necessity and even, perhaps, endeavor to contend with undazed greeps for a superior meal).
As you can see, this neatly solves the difficulty in the Niven/Pournelle original. The dish arrives crottled; crottle is justified as a species name just like greep, as well as retaining its original connection with intoxication from the world of comics; the repellent nature of the dish is retained and even enhanced by the implication that an uncrottled greep may fuck your shit up to an unspecified extent. Also, crottle has a fine ring of throttle, as an engine, and the German word Kräuter, meaning herbs: both clearly appropriate associations. (Concerning this last see also crottles.) In conclusion: it is self-evident that my solution is the best and my genius is superior.