Scotch Woodcock

A savoury of chopped egg in anchovy-spiked white sauce, meant to be spooned over hot buttered toast in the manner of the book's Welsh Rarebit I. It comes together in about ten minutes and depends entirely on how the sauce is seasoned.

• The hinge: season at the end, off the heatAnchovy is salty and its flavour flattens with prolonged cooking. Build the sauce, fold in the egg, then add the anchovy a little at a time and taste before adding the quarter teaspoon of salt, which may not be needed at all.
• Anchovy sauceThe original most likely means a bottled anchovy sauce or essence, the thin dark commercial condiment of the period. Anchovy paste from a tube is the closest modern stand-in; start with a scant teaspoon, or mash two oil-packed fillets to a paste. Worcestershire is not a substitute, though a few drops alongside does no harm.
• Butter and flour are not in balanceThree tablespoons butter to one and a half of flour gives a sauce that is richer and looser than a standard roux. If you want it to hold on toast without running, use two tablespoons of butter to the flour and stir the rest in at the end for gloss.
• "Thin white sauce"In books of this period that meant roughly a tablespoon of flour to a cup of milk — pourable, coating the back of a spoon but not standing up. Cook the roux a minute before adding milk so it does not taste of raw flour.
• Chop the eggs finely, not to a pastePush the whites through the coarse side of a grater or chop with a knife; the yolks can be crumbled in. Overworked egg turns the sauce grey and grainy.
• Do not boil after the eggs go inHard-boiled white toughens and squeaks if simmered. Hold the pan at a bare steam just long enough to heat through, two or three minutes.
• ServingTrim and butter four to six slices of toast, spoon the mixture over, and add a dusting more cayenne. Serves four as a light supper or six as a small first course; it does not reheat well.