Sauce for woodcock or...?
 

A friend of mine that I hunt with sometimes told me about how he prepares woodcock. He got the recipe out of Field & Stream magazine years ago.
I had the chance to make it up this past week for 4 woodcock that I took this season. It was very good and I felt it would be a great sauce to use for various meats. I think with pork chops would be great.

Heat 1 tbs of butter, 1 tbs of spicy mustard (Guldens), 1 tbs of Red Currant Jelly and 1 tbs of Sherry in a pan. Heat and stir until the jelly dissolves. The sherry could be added later on in the heating process if desired.

Add the sauce to the woodcock as they cook in a pan with butter to finish cooking (leaving breasts pink for best flavor).

Back in the late 90s early 2000s we would catch a woodcock migration once each fall near Lewistown, PA at a friends farm. His mom used the same basic recipe you show, though she used her crabapple jelly, and some apple cider. Pure Fall flavors. It was good on the braised rabbits too.

I have two words: Cumberland Sauce : )

Just a reminder about this one.

Yep. I said it Brian. It’s some work but so good. I always have trouble with timing everything to be hot and fresh. Due to the lack of fat there’s nothing worse then cold birds with warm sauce. I’ve also done woodcock breast and mushrooms wrapped in Filo (sp?) pastry. Yum : )

All great hearing about these treatments and methods makes me hungry!. Worst bitch I had in our hunt clubs is that over the years I have tried to hammer home the fact that these grandiose presentations need to be served on at least WARM plates!!

So many times the great dinner presentations were brought to the table on ICE COLD plates that had sat in the cupboard cabinets while dinner was being prepared - when it was my turn to cook I would stack the plates on the stove top or run them in a stack under the hot water spigot. Probably secondary to the argument of "no hats at table"; like most impressionable traits, it is a learned experience! "Respecter le jeu", merci?"