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Woodcock, Scotch, or Woodcock Toast
Take a slice of bread from a moderate-sized stale loaf, also three anchovies, one egg, and two or three table-spoonfuls of thick cream. Beat the yolk of the egg, mix it with the cream, and stir the mixture over the fire till it thickens, but it must not boil. Toast the bread, butter well on both sides, and cut it in halves. Wash, scrape, and mince the anchovies, put them between the pieces of toast, pour the cream, etc., over the toast, and serve as hot as possible. Time, five minutes to make the sauce hot. Probable cost, 6d. Sufficient for one person.
A late-Victorian savoury that takes about ten minutes and depends entirely on not letting the custard catch. Everything else is assembly.
- The hinge: do not let it boilEgg yolk and cream thicken between roughly 160F and 180F and scramble not far above that. Use a small heavy pan over low heat, or a bowl over barely simmering water, and stir constantly until the mixture coats a spoon. Off the heat the moment it thickens.
- There is no woodcock in itThe name is a joke at the expense of the real bird, which was roasted with its trail spread on toast. Nothing here needs game or game stock.
- AnchoviesThree anchovies here meant three whole salted fish from a jar or barrel, hence the instruction to wash and scrape. Each whole fish gives two fillets, so about six oil-packed fillets from a tin are the equivalent; blot the oil and mash them to a paste rather than mincing.
- SaltSeason the custard only after tasting. Salted anchovies and buttered toast bring plenty; modern tinned fillets bring more still.
- The breadA stale loaf simply means day-old bread, which toasts crisp instead of steaming. Cut a thick slice so it holds up under the sauce.
- Buttering both sidesButter on both faces plausibly keeps the crumb from turning to sop when the cream goes over it, which is an argument for assembling at the last moment; the recipe gives no reason of its own.
- Quantities and yieldTwo to three tablespoons of cream with one yolk gives a thin pouring custard for a single slice, as stated. Scale straight up: one yolk and two to three tablespoons of cream per person.
- CostSixpence appears to be the probable cost of the ingredients rather than a menu price.
Scotch woodcock belongs to the English savoury, the small hot salty course served after the sweet at Victorian and Edwardian dinners and, in men's clubs, sometimes said to have replaced it. The mock-game name follows a whole family of such jokes -- Welsh rabbit, Bombay duck, Scotch woodcock -- in which a modest dish borrows the title of an expensive one; the connection with Scotland is not documented and is usually put down to the same humour. The real lesson of the preparation is the stirred custard: yolk and cream held just below the point of setting. The anchovy is the period's default savoury seasoning, sold salted in jars and used the way a modern cook reaches for anchovy paste or Worcestershire sauce. Versions survived well into the twentieth century, sometimes with the anchovies laid on top and the eggs softly scrambled rather than poured as a sauce.