Woodcock, Roast
INGREDIENTS.
Woodcocks; butter, flour, toast.
Woodcocks should not be drawn, as the trails are, by epicures, considered a great delicacy. Pluck, and wipe them well outside; truss them with the legs close to the body, and the feet pressing upon the thighs; skin the neck and head, and bring ROAST WOODCOCK. the beak round under the wing. Place some slices of toast in the dripping-pan to catch the trails, allowing a piece of toast for each bird. Roast before a clear fire from 15 to 25 minutes; keep them well basted, and flour and froth them nicely.
When done, dish the pieces of toast with the birds upon them, and pour round a very little gravy; send some more to table in a tureen. These are most delicious birds when well cooked; but they should not be kept too long when the feathers drop, or easily come out, they are fit for table. - TIME. When liked underdone, 15 to 20 minutes; if liked well done, allow an extra 5 minutes.
SEASONABLE from November to February.
Woodcock. This bird, like partridge, may be carved by cutting it exactly A WOODCOCK.
B into two like portions, or made into three helpings, as described in carving partridge.
The backbone is considered the tit-bit of a WOODCOCK, SALMI OF. woodcock, and by many the thigh is also thought a great delicacy. This bird is served in the manner advised by Brillat Savarin, in connection with the pheasant, viz., on toast which has received its drippings whilst roasting; and a piece of this toast should invariably accompany each plate.
A game recipe that assumes a hanging larder, a clear open fire and a bird you shot yourself. Most of it translates, but three things — the hanging, the trail and the fire — need explaining before anything else.
- The trail is the pointWoodcock is one of the very few birds cooked undrawn: the intestines (the "trail") liquefy in the heat and drop onto the toast beneath, which is then served under the bird. The gizzard is usually removed, and the eyes are picked out before trussing. If the idea does not appeal, draw the bird and roast it on plain toast; you will have a good roast bird and none of the reason it is famous.
- "Fit for table when the feathers drop"Beeton's test is that the bird is ready when the feathers drop or come out easily, though the same sentence also warns against keeping it too long. Modern game handling advice is generally three to eight days hanging in the feather at around 4C/40F, less in mild weather, and a bird whose feathers pull out at a touch would now be reckoned past that point.
- SourcingWoodcock is not sold in American markets; it is available only to hunters, in season, under migratory bird regulations. In Britain and Ireland it can be bought from game dealers in season. The stated season, November to February, is close to the traditional British shooting calendar, which opens on 1 November in England and Wales and closes at the end of January.
- Fire to ovenThe book gives no oven setting; roasting before a clear fire is best approximated by a very hot oven, somewhere around 425-450F/220-230C, with the birds on a rack and the toast in the tin directly beneath to catch the drippings. Do not put the toast in until the last ten minutes if you want it crisp rather than saturated.
- TimingFifteen to twenty minutes at that heat gives a rosy breast; twenty-five gives a well-done bird by modern tastes. A Eurasian woodcock weighs only about 8-12 oz, and the American bird is smaller still, so the margin is narrow — check the breast at 125-130F/52-54C for rare.
- "Flour and froth"Near the end of roasting, dredge the breasts lightly with flour and baste hard with the hot butter; the flour and fat blister into a golden froth. It is a finishing technique, not a coating, and it wants the last three or four minutes only.
- GravyThe "very little gravy" is a plain roast gravy made from the pan drippings loosened with stock, not a thickened sauce. Some cooks mash the roasted trail with a little butter, lemon and brandy and spread it on the toast instead of letting it drip.
- ShotWarn anyone at the table. Small birds taken with fine shot frequently carry pellets, and modern lead shot is a reason to remove any you find rather than eat around them.
- YieldOne bird and one round of toast per person, as the recipe implies. Two per person for a serious game dinner.
Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola in Europe, Scolopax minor in North America) has been among the most prized of small game birds in English and French cooking for centuries, largely because of the trail. The bird feeds almost entirely on earthworms, and the traditional justification for cooking it undrawn is that its gut is short and clean-tasting — a distinction it shares with snipe and, in some kitchens, the golden plover. Mrs Beeton's invocation of Brillat-Savarin is telling: the Physiologie du goût (1825) treats roast game on its own drippings-soaked toast as a test of a cook's understanding, and English game cookery of the 1860s borrowed heavily from that French vocabulary of the connoisseur. The trussing described here keeps the legs close to the body with the feet pressing on the thighs and the beak brought round under the wing, and the head is skinned rather than removed.