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Roast Woodcocks

Roast Woodcocks is birds served on toast with a sauce of butter, onion, flour, mushroom ketchup, port wine, broth, pepper, mustard, lemon juice, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Roast Woodcocks

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Place a slice of fine bread under the woodcocks or snipes while roasting.

  3. Do not draw the birds before spitting them; let the tail drop on the toast.

Roast

  1. Baste the birds with butter while roasting.

  2. Roast the woodcock for 20 minutes and the snipe for 15 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, melt 1 ounce of butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the minced onion and cook until light brown.

  3. Stir in 1 tablespoon of flour, mushroom ketchup, port wine, and weak broth.

  4. Add the mixed pepper and salt, and bring to a boil.

  5. Stir in mustard, lemon juice, and vinegar.

Serve

  1. Serve the roasted birds on the toast, warm, with the 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. Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Bread + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Woodcocks or snipes
The main meat, whose flavour is the centre of the dish.
Butter
Basting fat that keeps the birds moist and promotes browning as they roast.
Flour
Thickens the sauce so it clings to the birds and toast.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth to the sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that balances the richness of the butter and game.

The step that matters

Roast the birds for the stated time. Woodcock and snipe are small and lean, so overcooking dries the meat quickly, while undercooking leaves it unsafe. Basting with butter helps keep the surface moist and golden during the roast.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, sauce, flour, mushroom, ketchup, port wine):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, sauce, flour, mushroom, ketchup, port wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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