Yup, The Defiant, the Vigilant, the Resolute and the smallest today, to the best of my knowledge, the Intrepid. I have a Vigilant in my home as a secondary heating source (it used to be my primary source) and a Resolute in my place on the lake in Maine, and of course the Resolute in the camp in Vermont. I bought the Vigilant at the foundry in Randolph in '79. It has been a wonderful heater - in fact, it's keeping the Fall afternoon chill off as I type this.

Tom, what's your recipe/cooking instructions for roasting a woodcock?





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I never cook the woodcock by themselves. I put two or three grouse in the oven first and after a while add the woodcock. I put a pad of butter on the birds backs and lightly salt and pepper. Sometimes I'll put a little paprika on because it looks nice on the cooked birds. I slice an onion and cook it with the birds. Woodcock take about 20 minutes to a half hour at 300 degrees, depending on the stove. I make a gravy from the drippings using Gravy Master to darken it a bit. The little fat strips under the skin of the woodcock is very tasty. The skin and legs are the best part, in my opinion.

I am an absolute fanatic about my game. I age all my game including birds in a refrigerator I have set up for the purpose. I like my grouse aged for five days and woodcock the same in the refrigerator kept at 38 degrees. I place waxed paper over them to keep the uppermost layers from drying out. It is important that they are not wrapped and air circulates around them during aging. Aging makes the birds more tender and I believe, adds a nice mellow taste. Sometimes I just put the drawn birds in the refrigerator with the feathers on. It works well and you don't need the waxed paper but they are harder to pluck and therefore you have an increased danger of ripping the skin. If I have too many birds to pluck after hunting, I just do some every day.

So let me know how you like the fileted breast medallions when you get around to doing it. Remember, 1 minute (max) on the first side and no more than 45 seconds on the flip side in very hot butter - then take them out of the pan! If they cook to "medium" they'll be overdone...





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I'll remember Dean. I'm going to cook up some over the weekend and give you a report next week. I leave tomorrow for Pawling to do some hunting. Three hours from Mayland. I close on the Maryland house on 11/1 and then I'll live in Pawling permanently. Many of my coverts are 10 minutes from the house. I'll be able to roll out ouf bed and into my coverts like I used to do. It's going to feel like heaven being back permanently in my Pawling home.

I only wish I could go back in time to the hunting haunts of my youth.

Someday I will, but I won't be able to share my experiences with anyone else...





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For anyone who wishes it, I have a French recipe for eating the WHOLE woodcock, including the entrails. UURRPP

John,
The camp we have gone to the last 10 years has mostly European (French) hunters who travel to New Brunswick every year to hunt the Woodcock. I was told of their method of preparing and eating these birds and honestly didn't believe it until I googled it. Like Dean I breast all my birds and could not imagine eating the innards especially after the long trip back to France.:eek:

I've watched a video of a French chef preparing the bird, removing the "trail" (entrails) and dicing them up with salt and some spices and sauteeing them in clarified butter, them stuffing them back in the bird and roasting it for another ten or fifteen minutes. The trail was then removed and spread on little cracker thingies and eaten..... yuch :eek: (I mean there's dead worms and stuff in there - :whistle:.......... and then the rest of the bird was consumed with great relish.:bigbye:





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I don't care how great the relish is -and I like relish !!! I aint eating bird shit and worms !!!:rotf:

Ah Chris, you have a way with words. I'm still laughing. I completely agree with your assessment of eating woodcock guts.