The recipe
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare the woodcocks by trussing them with the legs twisted at the knuckles and the feet pressing upon the thighs.
Skin the neck and head, then bring the beak under the wing and secure it with the pinions.
Skewer four woodcocks and tie them on a spit.
Roast and serve
Roast over a sharp fire for 10 to 15 minutes, placing toast underneath to catch the drippings.
Serve the woodcocks on the toast with a little gravy, and optionally bard them with bacon.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Woodcocks
- Provide the main meat, which cooks quickly over a fierce fire and stays moist when roasted whole.
- Toast
- Catches the drippings from the birds and soaks up their juices as a base for serving.
- Thin slices of bacon
- Laid over the birds, the fat bastes the lean meat and keeps it from drying out while roasting.
The step that matters
Roast over a sharp fire for 10 to 15 minutes. Woodcock is small and lean, so a hot fire cooks it quickly. Overcooking dries the meat, and a short roast keeps it juicy while the drippings collect on the toast below.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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