Skip to main content
Main

Woodcock Toast

A toast topped with a liver and anchovy mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

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

  2. Wash, drain, and dry the livers, then pound them until fine.

  3. Pass both the livers and anchovies through a fine sieve.

Make the mixture

  1. In a saucepan, combine the livers, anchovies, butter, cream, egg yolks, sugar, paprika, and salt.

  2. Stir over low heat until the mixture thickens.

Serve

  1. Serve the mixture over buttered toast immediately.

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. Cream + sugartop 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, savoury flavour of the spread.
Egg yolks
Thicken the mixture as it heats and give it a smooth, creamy set.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth texture and richness.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness, making the spread less dense.
Anchovies
Add a deep, salty savouriness that rounds out the livers.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat until the mixture thickens. Egg yolks set at moderate temperatures, and high heat can curdle them into grainy lumps. Gentle, constant stirring keeps the mixture smooth and evenly thickened.

“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

Chicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipesChicken PanadaChicken Panada75 recipes