To eat widgeon in perfection, half roast the birds. When they come to table, slice the breast, strew on pepper and salt, pour on a little red wine, and squeeze the juice of an orange or lemon over; put some gravy to this; set the plate on a lamp; cut up the bird; let it remain over the lamp till enough done, turning it. A widgeon will take nearly twenty minutes to roast, to eat plain with good gravy only.
Wild Duck, to roast.
It will take full twenty minutes—gravy sauce to eat with it.
Woodcocks and Snipes, to roast.
Twenty minutes will roast the woodcocks, and fifteen the snipes. Put under either, while roasting, a toast to receive the trail, which lay under them in the dish. Melted butter and good gravy for sauce.
Woodcocks à la Française.
Pick them, then draw and truss them; let their breasts be larded with broad pieces of bacon; roast and serve them up on toasts dipped in verjuice.
Woodcocks, to pot.
The same as you pot pigeons.