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Woodcock Toast

A toast topped with a liver and anchovy mixture, buttered and seasoned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Woodcock Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the livers and anchovies

  1. Wash and clean the livers, removing any gall.

  2. Drain the livers in a cloth and pound them in a mortar until fine.

  3. Bone and skin the anchovies, then pound them to a paste.

  4. Mix the livers and anchovies thoroughly, then add the butter, sugar, and seasoning.

Make the mixture

  1. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve and incorporate the egg yolks and half the cream.

  2. Stir the mixture in a chafing dish until cooked.

  3. Add more cream and seasoning if needed.

Serve

  1. Prepare a plate with buttered toast.

  2. Pour the mixture over the toast.

  3. Garnish with fried bread croutons.

  4. Serve.

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

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

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 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

Chicken or duck livers
Provide the main body and rich flavour of the spread once pounded smooth.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help it set into a smooth, custard-like texture when cooked.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness, loosening the mixture and keeping it smooth.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the mixture a silky mouthfeel.
Anchovies
Add a salty, savoury depth that rounds out the flavour of the livers.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture in a chafing dish until cooked. Egg yolks thicken when heated but can curdle or turn grainy if overheated. Gentle, constant stirring keeps the mixture smooth and evenly set.

“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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