I work hard now to avoid the "bad mornings after" effect, but that Sir was truly funny. The stew turned out surprisingly well. I had concerns about the overall quality of some of the ingredients (due to their long residence in our freezer) but a long soaking in a sugar/salt brine had very positive effects. I trimmed off some freezer burn, cleaned everything else up, and browned the meat in a skillet first. The woodcock leg and thigh bits were so good that the majority of them didn't make it into the final product(!). The combination of all the odds and ends produced a looser gravy than I had anticipated (so the next batch will likely have less veggies, more potatoes and perhaps even some cornstarch), and the meat cubes didn't break down as much as the cookbook photos indicated (perhaps longer simmering would help?), but even the sharptail chunks were darn good. It was a school night, so no vino as an accompaniment (sadly, a big red would have been wonderful, along with some fresh bread), but overall... a very nice mix of flavors. Extremely happy with the results.
Last edited by Lloyd3; 04/21/21 11:13 AM.
