Skip to main content
Main

Fried Woodcock

Fried woodcock is a roasted bird served on toasted bread with coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Fried Woodcock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat a frying kettle half full of smoking‑hot fat.

  2. Trim the crust from the bread.

  3. Toast the bread delicately.

Fry and serve

  1. Plunge the dressed woodcock into the hot fat.

  2. Fry the woodcock until golden brown.

  3. Sprinkle the fried woodcock with coarse sea salt.

  4. Serve the woodcock on the toasted bread.

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

What each ingredient does

Woodcock
The main bird, cooked by frying so its skin browns and crisps.
Smoking-hot fat
Conducts heat quickly, browning and crisping the bird's outside as it cooks.
Bread
Toasted slices give a crisp base that holds each bird.

The step that matters

Plunge the woodcock into the hot fat. The fat must be smoking hot so the surface sears and browns quickly. If the fat is too cool, the bird soaks up grease, turns heavy, and the skin stays pale and soft.

“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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes