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.
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.
