Woodcock, Roast

Ingredients

• two woodcocks
• slices of bacon
• two or three vine-leaves
• melted butter

Method

1. 1

   Truss the woodcocks without drawing them.

2. 2

   Cover with bacon and place under the fire.

3. 3

   Roast for 15-30 minutes depending on preference.

4. 4

   Serve on toast with melted butter.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Cassell's dictionary of cookery (1892) by Cassell & Company, page 2329. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

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. Probable cost, uncertain. Sufficient, two for a dish. Woodcock, Roast (another way). — There is more art in roasting woodcocks than any other bird of the same size. They require constant attention during the operation of roasting them. As they must be very little dressed — the flesh of the woodcock, like that of all dark-fleshed game, being digestible when ahnost raw, and losing its savour if roasted to the same degree as a partridge — their cooking occupies but little time; therefore the cook should never leave her woodcocks from the moment they arc put down until she takes them up. Truss without drawing them, and put toast under them to catch the trail, which often falls from them when they are before the fire. The most delicate parts of the woodcock arc the legs and the trail ; next, the breast. As this latter must be very much underdone, and the legs a little better done, to be eatable, there is, of course, an inequality in their roasting, which must bo obviated by stopping the spit for a time whenever the legs are turned to- wards the fire, in order to give them a greater proportion of heat. The woodcocks when done are served up upon the toast with melted butter

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.