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Fillets of Woodcock in Surprise

Roast some woodcock in a hot oven, keeping them rather underdone. When cooked cut the fillets carefully off the breasts of the woodcocks, cover each with chicken forcemeat, and let them simmer in some stock for ten or twelve minutes. Put as many dressed cockscombs as there are fillets in a little stock, and warm them. Put a border of mashed potatoes on a hot dish, arrange the fillets, and cockscombs alternately on them, pour over some veloute game-sauce and serve.

Fillets of Woodcocks, Lucullus Singe and draw some birds, fix them on a spit and roast, keeping them rather underdone. Make about one-half pound of chicken forcemeat, take the fillets off the birds, spread them over with the forcemeat, brush over with beaten egg, lay them in a buttered sautepan, pour in sufficient white stock to cover them, and boil gently for a few minutes. Chop the flesh off the legs and the trails, put it in a mortar, pound and pass through a fine hair-sieve. Put the pounded meat in a saucepan with one and one-half breakfast cupfuls of game-sauce (which can be made from the bones of the birds) and boil it till thick, move the sauce to the side of the fire and stir in the beaten yolks of two eggs. Arrange the fillets of woodcocks in a circle on a hot dish, alternating each with a crouton of fried bread pour the sauce in the middle of the dish, and serve.

Fillets of Woodcock on Toast Separate the fillets from the bones of some woodcocks, trim them neatly, season with salt and pepper, and brush over with warmed butter. Chop the trails of the birds and mix them with some chopped parsley, shallots and scraped bacon, and season the mixture with salt and pepper. Cut some crusts of bread longer than the fillets, make some deep slits down the edges, fry them in butter, then scoop out the crumb. Fill the crusts with the chopped trail mixture and bake them. Put the fillets of woodcocks in a fryingpan with some butter and fry them. Mix some meat glaze with some stock that should have been made with the pounded carcass of the birds. When cooked place the crusts on a hot dish, put a fillet on each crust, and serve them with the sauce in a sauceboat.

Fillets of Woodcock with Truffle Puree Separate the fillets from the bones of the birds, trim and put them in a fryingpan, season with a little salt and pepper, and baste with a little warmed butter. Stud each of the minion fillets with a small square of truffle, lay them in a bakingdish with a small lump of butter, cover with a sheet of buttered paper, and bake in the oven. Fry the large fillets over a moderate fire. Fix a croustade in the center of a hot dish and fill it with truffle puree. Arrange the large fillets when cooked in a circle round the croustade, then place the minion fillets around them. Pour over the fillets some essence of woodcocks that have been mixed with a small quantity of half glaze, and serve then.