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Salmi of Woodcock

A dish of roasted woodcock served with a gravy made from pork bits, wine, lemon, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Salmi of Woodcock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the birds

  1. Roast the woodcock until half done, then cut into quarters.

Make the gravy

  1. In a chafing dish, combine the bits of pork, giblets, necks of the birds, and enough water to stew them.

  2. Add the quartered birds to the gravy, cover, and cook until tender.

  3. Remove the birds and arrange them neatly on the buttered toast.

  4. Strain the gravy, return it to the chafing dish, and add small pieces of butter rolled in flour, lemon juice, and wine.

  5. Bring to a boil and pour over the salmi.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Woodcock
Provides the main meat, which is roasted partly and then finished gently in the gravy until tender.
Fat pork
Renders fat and flavour into the stewing liquid, enriching the gravy.
Wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich, savoury gravy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that sharpens the gravy and balances its richness.
Butter rolled in flour
Flour thickens the strained gravy, and butter adds richness and smooth body.

The step that matters

Stewing the birds until tender. Woodcock is lean and can turn dry or tough if overcooked. Cooking gently in the simmering gravy until just tender keeps the meat moist and lets it absorb flavour.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, pepper, lemon, wine):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, lemon, 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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