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Roast Blackcock

Roast blackcock seasoned with butter and bacon, baked until browned, served with gravy and watercress.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and watercress work together. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 842 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Roast Blackcock

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Hang the blackcock for a few days to age, depending on the weather.

  2. Pluck and draw the birds, then wipe them inside and out, and truss like fowl.

  3. Lay a slice of fat bacon on each breast.

Roast

  1. Melt the butter and pour it over the birds.

  2. Roast in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 45 minutes.

  3. Remove the bacon 10 minutes before they are done to allow the breasts to brown, and baste continually.

Serve

  1. Once cooked, remove skewers and strings, place on a hot dish, and garnish with watercress.

  2. Serve with rich gravy and optionally bread sauce.

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. Butter + watercresstop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together842 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Blackcock
Provides the main meat, which is cooked whole and trussed to hold its shape.
Butter
Adds fat and moisture to the birds and helps the skin brown as they roast.
Fat bacon
Bastes the breasts with melting fat, keeping the meat moist and flavourful during roasting.

The step that matters

Removing the bacon 10 minutes before the end. Removing the bacon lets the breasts brown directly in the oven heat. Removing it too early leaves them pale, while leaving it on too long can stop the breast skin from crisping. Continual basting keeps the surface moist and encourages even browning.

“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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