Skip to main content
Main

Scotch Woodcock

A toasted bread dish topped with anchovy essence, beaten egg and cream mixture, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Scotch Woodcock

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scotch Woodcock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the toast

  1. Spread butter on both sides of the toasted bread.

  2. Spread anchovy essence over the buttered toast.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs with the cream.

  2. Pour the mixture into a chafing dish and stir until it thickens.

Finish and serve

  1. Add salt and pepper, then pour over the toast.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  4. Anchovy + eggtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks set as they warm, thickening the cream into a rich custard.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, moist texture to the custard.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the toast, carrying flavor into the bread.
Anchovy essence
Adds a concentrated savory, salty flavor to the buttered toast.

The step that matters

Stir the custard until it thickens. Egg proteins set gradually as they warm. Too much heat or too little stirring can scramble the yolks, so the mixture should be stirred constantly and removed once it has thickened.

“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.

More anchovy toast recipes

with Poached Eggs 5with Egg Yolk Cream 3 See all 93 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes