scotch woodcock
(from The Book of Household Management, edited by Isabella Beeton, 1861)
Ingredients:
Instructions:
Ingredients:
slices of hot buttered toast
1 anchovy for each slice
for the sauce...
1/4 pint of cream
3 eggs
Instructions:
1653. Ingredients: - A few slices of hot buttered toast; allow 1 anchovy to each slice. For the sauce,—1/4 pint of cream, the yolks of 3 eggs.
Method: - Separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs; beat the former, stir to them the cream, and bring the sauce to the boiling-point, but do not allow it to boil, or it will curdle. Have ready some hot buttered toast, spread with anchovies pounded to a paste; pour a little of the hot sauce on the top, and serve very hot and very quickly.
Time: 5 minutes to make the sauce hot.
Sufficient: Allow 1/2 slice to each person. Seasonable at any time
Photo by Karenjc CC-3.0
The Scotch Woodcock sandwich was a well-known dish in the Victorian era and is mentioned in “Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management" published in 1861. Isabella Mayson Beeton was a talented cook and writer whose bestselling cookbook sold 60,000 copies in one year and nearly two million by 1868! Despite the name, the Scotch Woodcock sandwich contains neither Scotch nor woodcock. It is a dish consisting of scrambled egg and anchovies.
I am not fond of anchovies, so here is a recipe that calls for only a small amount of anchovy paste in case you would like to try it sans anchovies.
Scotch Woodcock II
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup milk
Salt and freshly ground pepper
⅛ teaspoon grated nutmeg
Dash of Tabasco sauce
1 teaspoon anchovy paste
4 hard‐cooked eggs
4 square, trimmed slices of sandwich bread
Butter for toast
Sources:
The Times print archive, March 11, 1979.
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