A few are showing up on some of my creek/branch bottoms.
JR

What, seriously! Woodcock are delicious!

If you’re hungry enough.


________________________
They eat worms.

John
if they are pests, let me know, Ill come rid you of them.
Free of charge.

In the Normandy province of France they are a delicacy. Known as Becasse. they are delicious.
do not over cook. should be med rare at best. filet the breasts and Rollin some egg, flour, salt, pepper and saute' for about 2 minutes. saute' some onions and mushrooms and serve as an app or if you have enough, a meal. don't believe the old wives tales about tasting like worms.

If you overcook them they are tough and taste like liver. The simplest way to cook IMO is breast them out and put a slice of Jalapeno in a small slit in the breast, wrap in bacon and put them on the grill. When the bacon is done, they are done. PS. Did I mention not to overcook them.

See delicious!

Don't bother with them. Let them fly back north in the spring, and we'll deal with them next October.

They're wonderful, John. Gil will be along, maybe tomorrow morning early. He'll give you a recipe that he gave me. Tough to beat.

SRH

Yes, key is to not over cook, also to complement with something like a mushroom risotto

I dice the breasts and sautée them with onions and celery, and use it to prepare stuffing for Ruffed grouse. Be cautious not to over roast the grouse.

Quite edible.

Best,
Ted

I cook them two ways.  First way is a plucked and gutted bird coated with olive oil, salt and pepper.  I have a small 4 bird vertical roaster made from a coathanger.  With birds in place, I roast them at high heat 400-500 degrees in the oven or  on my grill used to bake, not broil, at high heat.  About 7 minutes is all it takes.  Rare to medium rare as depicted.  If well done, you might as well serve liver on a stick.    I smothered them with chanterelles I picked in the summer.  I saute them in butter/olive oil and freeze in vacuum bags for winter use.  Note the chunky legs and thighs.  

From Steve Bodio on cooking woodcock:

"Also notice the color of the cut flesh. Like all good Woodcock (and snipe) cooks, he
sort of passes them through a very hot oven. I get tired of hearing how dark- fleshed birds “taste like liver”- good LIVER doesn’t taste like liver when it is cooked rare, turned over quickly in hot bacon fat and butter. My disgusted French- born gourmand friend Guy de la Valdene, after he read an American recipe for woodcock that involved two cans of cream of mushroom soup and an hour and a half in the oven, wrote (in Making Game in 1990): “As this recipe negates the whole reason for killing the birds in the first place, why not take it a step further and poach the Woodcock overnight in equal parts of catsup, pabulum, and Pepto- Bismol.”




The other way I do them is to breast the bird and filet the meat off the bone into medallions.  I  remove the intact thigh and drumstick from the back bone.  My shooting partner Floyd's favorite part is the drumstick thigh meat.  They are excellent with plenty of meat.  Don't just breast the bird and throwaway the legs and thighs. In a medium hot skillet, with olive oil and butter hot, I dredge the meat on each side in the hot oil/butter mix and saute the meat and salt and pepper in the pan.  I don't see the need to coat with batter, etc.  A minute and a half on each side is all that is needed to cook the meat medium rare.  If a little on the rare side, it won't kill you.  It's a great tasting bird and worth pursuing for sport and the table.  Gil

I'm glad to see that others enjoy Woodcock as I do. Ted's idea of using them for Grouse stuffing sounds good. I've always utilized the the legs, and bake them with the breasts. The legs are actually light, making a good contrast to the breasts.
Come October!
Karl

In Italy known as Beccaccia and some great woodcock recipes come from there. Took me a long time to figure out not to overcook them.

Hunt phez in SD with some other retired military guys and we all bring our woodcocks with us to cook there.

Cristina Di Beccaccia, aka Croutons of woodcock. Mince the meat roughly(not fine). We start with butter, garlic, some carrot and onion finely shredded and added the meat as the carrots are softened along with all of the small can of anchovies--salt not needed. Do not overcook.

Mix in the parsley as you get ready to serve over garlic toast.

It is a highly Americanized version of the Italian version which includes most of the birds internals. And is outstanding IMO.



That year I took the picture we also used some Ritz crackers because someone may have burnt a batch of the garlic toast so were short on Crostini. Alcohol may or may not have been involved and he wears 2 stars so I can neither confirm nor deny the fact if it was or not.

Glad you're talking about woodcock and not wood chuck, which I read as the topic "Can you really eat woodchuck."

Had to go back and re-read the heading when I saw the birds on the grill, photo! I've never eaten woodcock, but they sound tasty!

A woodchuck is really just a big squirrel. He eats nothing but clean, green vegetation.

You can do worse.

Best,
Ted

I have an acquaintance who reportedly eats armadillos occasionally. Woodchuck would be easy in comparison. Woodcock would be a delicacy, in comparison to either, IMHE.

I can guarandamnty you don't want to eat any undercooked armadillos unless your in favor of contracting any number of plagues.

Not many woodcocks in my neck of the woods....I've always been skeptical of eating them since my Shorthair would point them but would not pick them up to retrieve. She'd retrieve anything else I'd shoot.

Woodcock do taste like liver (IMO). Even if not overcooked. But I like liver, so that's OK with me. I've been known to trade ruffed grouse for woodcock.

But I also like sharptails and prairie chickens, and many people don't care for them. Mostly a question of dark meat vs light . . .dark always having a stronger flavor.

I eat them guts and all.

I've posted the process here before.

Look at the Scott Rhea project on Youtube for his down scale efforts.

I love them both roasted sitting on a toast raft surrounded by a sauce made from the entire trail (in the style of Escoffier), as well as surrounded by a moat of fresh Cumberland sauce.

Additionally, the skull is pricked open like a potato crisp with the lower beak, and the brain scooped out on its tip, like a delicate, creamy, jelly bean.

c'est Manufique! (Sp)

You have a cherry Coke or Dr. Pepper with that?

Cold Iron,

That’s an MRE, right?


_________________________
The apples look good.

I used to bag a woodcock now and then chasing singles from a bobwhite covey rise down into the swamp. I just gutted & skinned'em and fried them with the quail. Aweful, they even contaminated the quail they were cooked with. I think they should be given protected status like Eagles and Buzzards to prevent the horror of eating them...Geo

I have read this before on this and other boards where hunters post. I have to say, and this is purely my opinion, that this still sounds as disgusting here today as it did the first time I ever saw it written!! I have never eaten woodcock/snipe but would certainly like to try it. But, I will leave the insides of the bird to the trash just like the insides of all the other gamebirds I eat. I can only wonder that if one would eat snipe guts, would you also eat chicken the same way???

Woodcock etc..
I really appreciate this thread as it deviates from the
never ending ammendment 2 disputes/insults...
So here is some info ..
In the wine pubs of western Vienna you cold hear a
cynical song which reads...
" Wer a goed hot isst an Schnepfen-dreck und
wer kans hot lasst den Schnepfen weg"...
(Schnepfen-dreck means "gut"and NOT junk....)
I will not translate it further, but my late mother
who learned to cook in a grand-bourgois household
told me that the woodcock-gut has been roasted....
To conclude on game meat in Central Europe:
- roe dear young in november/december is unbeatable
as everything on it is steak-like with beginning
game taste
- young WILD (non-reared) Hungarian partridge can not be bettered
by any pheasant or other bird
Guten Appetit and cheers
FN

I am not in prime woodcock territory, but over the years I did kill a fair amount of them. I am NOT a cook, my Wife is a fantastic one, so I left their cooking entirely up to her. I did not really even ask her how she cooked them, but they were always good & I ate & enjoyed them. They "Did Not" taste like Liver, if they had I would not have eaten them.

I have never eaten liver, regardless of how it was cooked which tasted like anything other than Liver, & I don't like the taste of liver.

Medium rare sliced in thin strips.

Clapper must be French.

Oui, mon ami. He most likely likes ortolans as well. Le Reynard!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf4WeiAmuD8
JR

After watching that all I can say is, Boy, was I wrong!
Definitely a dish you would pair with a Sprite.


_________________________
What time does Chick-fil-a open?

John,
Thanks for sharing, but I'll stick to marinated breasts and legs! Still, I'll never know unless I try.
Karl

Hallo, Felix-- Wie ghets mit ehen? OK--Who eats hot woodcock entrails becomes he who leaves it alone.. Lecker wie ScheiBkuchen auf misch, meine Fruend. Herr Fuchs-- Prosit

I cooked woodcock this afternoon in the traditional method in accordance with Scott Rea's video instructions posted by the OP above. 

  It's labor intensive and produces good results.  I believe alternative methods such as described by others above are fine as well.  A word about the traditional method:  guts are left inside.  It sounds rough, but consider this:  Ever smell the insides of a gutted quail?  Pretty bad regardless of how fresh.  Woodcock have no smell when gutted.  Maybe it's because nothing stays in the intestines for any length of time.  Anyhow, the only complaint I had was the gravy was gritty.  The gizard is not utilized, but perhaps sand is passed through the digestive tract and that's where I picked it up.  The brain?  Okay, not anything to write further about.  The flavor of the meat was very good and the gravy not overpowering.  I may do it again in the future, but I've done it once and don't see the immediate need to do it again.  

wif nouf ketchup an lots o beer, hit might go down ok...

or mebbee it would be useful for catfish bait?

GlS,
Thanks for the post, as I was curious about it after watching the video. You certainly have my Woodcock hunter's respect.
Karl

I’m going to keep doing it my way.

That said, I haven’t made a specific woodcock trip in a very long time. I don’t see them at the population levels I once did. I move a few of what I consider local birds, but, let them be unless the dog handles it very well.

Cool photos, Gil. Was your daughter in on that?

Best,
Ted

I've noticed my cat when it catches a bird eats every thing except feathers and beak. It must be good because shes real picky on bought catfood.

Nope, Ted, she's a 800 miles away. No birds pilfered this year from freezer by her or her brother. Gil

Well, that is good and bad. Wonder if she would have been game to give that meal a run with you.

Not trying to insult your cooking, but, a burger looks pretty good, from here.

The gunmakers I called on in France, thought they could find something I wouldn’t eat. They were unsuccessful. But, I didn’t love everything I ate on that trip, I just didn’t tell them that.

Best,
Ted

Well done, Gil!

Myself, I like them roasted just a little bit more.

I'm surprised you weren't profoundly bashed here for your coprophagia.

How did you find the taste of their melted fat?

Next time, try a Cumberland sauce with it. The astringence is a perfect accompaniment to the roasted flesh.

……….. right there is where my interest waned.

CZ, I live by the motto "if you have to eat a turd, don't nibble."
Didn't notice the melted fat. As for "gritty", just a tad and not like when I believed what I read about not washing chanterelle mushrooms and to simply brush them clean otherwise washing dilutes the flavor. BS. That epicurean episode was like chewing wet/dry sandpaper. Gil

Gil,
Woodcock have no gizzard or crop.

When they take flight the pressure of their flight muscles empties their entire digestive track, which is why you see a stream commonly when they takeoff.

So, unless one of Yesterdays earthworms was full of sand, there just isn’t much hard material in their digestive track by the time we get them.

with regards their fat, it’s molecular weight and flavor is quite unique.

Should you decide to roast one Whole at a later date, after the roasting, and while it is resting, take a teaspoon and taste the fat that renders out of the bird between the meat and skin.

It is far better than drawn butter.

I found Scott Rea’s recipe to be a bit crude, and his handling of the bird a bit rough, Escoffier has a much nicer rendition.

A whole roasted Woodcock resting on a toast raft surrounded by Cumberland sauce is a sublime meal.

Somewhat like eating "Hand-Slung Chittlings" huh?. I'll still take mine Creek-Washed. I have eaten woodcock, but not the Guts. I have also eaten chitterlings &hey are absolutely delicious.

What is the structure that isn't liver, heart or intestine that is firm and looks like a gizzard? Or is it the liver? I usually toss the innards; this is the first time I've eaten them. However, I am not bashful about eating the entrails of a boiled blue crab. Gil

Their liver, when mashed to a paste and drizzled with Metaxis brandy is fantastic.