Salmis de Bécasse

Salmis de bécasse (woodcock in a reduced game sauce) teaches one uncompromising principle: the bird must remain rosy while its carcass gives everything to the sauce. This is not a method for disguising yesterday's roast. The woodcock is deliberately roasted underdone, carved while supple, then warmed only long enough to meet its dark, glossy sauce.

The original formula assumed a saucier on staff, game stock never off the fire, and a salamander waiting to heat the serving dish. Here, strong unsalted brown poultry stock is fortified with the freshly chopped carcasses, one saucepan replaces the separate sauce station, and a gently warmed platter does the salamander's work. I have scaled the brigade preparation to four birds and one cook. Those arrangements were scaffolding. The underdone roasting, the intestines worked into the sauce, and the swift final service are the dish, and they stay.

When it lands correctly, each small joint is tender and rosy beneath a wine-dark glaze, with the faint mineral depth that belongs only to woodcock. Have every sauce ingredient measured before the birds enter the oven. The carving and carcass reduction must move without delay, because guarding the meat from a second cooking is the one step that decides the salmis.