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Woodcock Roasted

A roasted woodcock wrapped in pork or bacon, served with liver paste and toast, garnished with watercress or parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and watercress work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 983 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Woodcock Roasted

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the bird

  1. Cut off the feet and tie the legs close to the body.

  2. Skin the head and neck, then tie the peak under the wings.

  3. Wrap thin slices of pork or bacon around the bird.

Roast

  1. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 to 15 minutes, basting with butter.

Make the liver paste

  1. Clean the hearts and livers.

  2. Cook the hearts and livers in boiling salted water.

  3. Pound the cooked hearts and livers to a paste.

  4. Season the liver paste with salt and pepper.

Assemble and serve

  1. Butter the toast.

  2. Cover the toast with the liver paste.

  3. Place the bird on top of the toast.

  4. Moisten the bird with the butter from the pan.

  5. Garnish with watercress or parsley.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + watercresstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together983 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pork + watercresstop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Woodcock
Is the main meat, cooked whole so it stays moist and tender under its wrapping.
Pork or bacon
Wrapped around the bird, it bastes the meat with its fat and adds savoury flavour as it cooks.
Butter
Basting fat that carries heat over the bird, promoting browning and a rich, moist surface.
Hearts and livers (in the method)
Pounded into a paste, they give the toast a rich, savoury, creamy spread.
Toast
Absorbs the juices and liver paste beneath the bird, holding it and adding a crisp, savoury base.

The step that matters

Basting with butter in a hot oven. The bird is cooked briefly at high heat. Regular basting with melted butter keeps the surface from drying out and promotes even browning, while the short time prevents the lean meat from toughening.

“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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