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Woodcock, Roast
Pluck the woodcocks carefully, neck and head as well. Do not open them, but truss them securely (see WOODCOCK, TRUSSED). Fasten them, feet downwards, to a spit, put them down to a brisk, clear fire, flour them, and baste liberally with dripping or butter. When they have been down about five minutes, put a buttered toast, free from crust, under them, to catch the droppings from the trail. After this is done, hold a dish under them when they are basted. When the steam draws to the fire, they are done enough. Dish them with a piece of toast under each, and garnish with watercress. Send melted butter or orange gravy to table in a tureen. It is an improvement to cover the woodcocks with slices of bacon before putting them down to the fire, and when they are to be had, two or three vine-leaves may be laid under the bacon. Time to roast the woodcocks, if liked underdone, fifteen to twenty minutes; if liked well dressed, twenty-five to thirty minutes.
A spit-roasting method for a small game bird cooked undrawn, with its innards left in and the drippings caught on toast. Almost every instruction here assumes an open fire and a bird you have shot yourself.
- Sourcing and legalityIn the United States the American woodcock is a migratory game bird and its sale is prohibited. In Britain the Eurasian woodcock may be shot only within a statutory open season, and legally taken birds may be sold by game dealers. In practice this recipe is for a shooter, a shooter's friend, or a buyer in a country where dealing is permitted.
- The trail is the point"Do not open them" is the hinge of the dish. The trail is left in and allowed to melt out onto the toast beneath, which is then served as the base of the bird. The reason usually given for not drawing woodcock is that its gut is comparatively clean; some cooks remove the gizzard after cooking, though this recipe does not mention it. A bird that has been drawn makes this recipe pointless.
- Undrawn and underdoneThe fifteen-to-twenty-minute option produces a bird pink at the breast with the viscera barely set. That is the classic European treatment, but it is still rare offal from a wild animal, and anyone pregnant, elderly, immune-compromised, or feeding children should take the twenty-five to thirty minutes instead.
- Fire to ovenA "brisk, clear fire" is a fierce, smokeless bed of coals. In an oven, work at 425-450F on a rack set over the toast, and turn the bird once or twice rather than relying on a rotating spit.
- "When the steam draws to the fire"The old cook's doneness sign: when the vapour rising from the bird begins to be pulled toward the flame rather than drifting straight up. What exactly it indicates is a matter of interpretation. The modern equivalent is simply the clock, or about 130-135F at the thickest part of the breast for underdone.
- Barding and vine leavesWoodcock has almost no fat and the breast dries in minutes. The bacon is not a flavouring so much as insulation; use thin unsmoked streaky or pork fatback. Fresh grape leaves under the bacon are traditional, faintly resinous, and easiest found brined in jars — rinse them well if so.
- Melted butter and orange gravy"Melted butter" in Victorian usage is a butter sauce thickened with a little flour, not simply liquid butter. Orange gravy is generally a reduction of game stock or pan juices with the juice and pared zest of an orange, often with wine; the recipe here gives no formula.
- YieldOne bird per person, and the toast counts as the accompaniment. Watercress, plain and untouched by dressing, is a standard garnish for roast game in this period.
Cassell's places woodcock in a long English tradition of cooking small waders and songbirds undrawn. The toast set beneath the spit — the "woodcock toast" — is often said to descend from the older habit of using bread as a dripping-catcher and then eating it, and by the nineteenth century it was closely associated with a properly served bird. The bird itself carried real prestige in Victorian sporting households, both because it is difficult to shoot in the twisting flight through cover and because its season is short and weather-dependent, arriving with the first hard frosts. The recommendation of vine leaves under the bacon is associated with French practice for small game birds generally, and the alternative of orange gravy points back to the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English fondness for bitter Seville orange with wildfowl, a pairing that outlived most of the other sweet-sour sauces of that era.