Why it works: Pepper and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,964 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Roast Woodcock
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Remove the head and feet from the woodcock, then wash and dry them.
Rub the inside of the birds with coarse sea salt and fill with rich bread dressing.
Roast
Place the birds in a roasting pan and sprinkle with pepper and additional salt.
Add ½ cup of hot water to the pan.
Baste the birds frequently until nearly done, about 30 minutes.
Allow the birds to brown before serving.
Serve
Serve hot on buttered toast.
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.
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Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Woodcock
- The lean game birds are the main dish, cooked whole until tender and browned.
- Rich bread dressing
- Fills the cavity, absorbing juices from the birds and adding moisture and flavour from within.
The step that matters
Baste the birds frequently. Woodcock is a lean game bird with little fat, so it dries out easily. Regular basting with the pan juices keeps the meat moist and helps the skin brown evenly.
“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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