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Woodcock Roasted

Roasted woodcock wrapped in pork or bacon, served on toast with liver paste and 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

serves 1 (toast enough for one bird)
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. Dress and clean the woodcock inside and out, 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 and make the liver paste

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

  2. Clean and cook the hearts and livers in boiling salted water.

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

  4. Season the paste with salt and pepper.

Assemble and serve

  1. Butter slices of toast large enough for one bird.

  2. Cover the toast with the liver paste.

  3. Place the roasted woodcock on the toast.

  4. Moisten the toast with 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
Forms the main dish; its lean flesh cooks quickly and is served whole on the toast.
Pork or bacon
Wrapped around the bird, it bastes the lean meat and adds fat and savory flavor as it cooks.
Butter
Basting fat that promotes browning and moistens the bird and the toast.
Hearts and livers (in the method)
Cooked and pounded into a paste that gives a rich, creamy spread under the bird.
Toast
Absorbs butter and pan juices, giving a crisp base that holds the liver paste.

The step that matters

Roasting the bird in a hot oven. Woodcock is very lean and cooks fast, so a short high-heat roast keeps the meat tender and juicy. Overcooking dries it out quickly.

“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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