diff --git a/web/middleware/options.go b/web/middleware/options.go
index 4bb7b12..4bdce5f 100644
--- a/web/middleware/options.go
+++ b/web/middleware/options.go
@@ -1,48 +1,73 @@
 package middleware
 
 import (
-	"io"
 	"net/http"
-	"net/http/httptest"
 	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/zenazn/goji/web"
 )
 
-// AutomaticOptions automatically return an appropriate "Allow" header when the
-// request method is OPTIONS and the request would have otherwise been 404'd.
-func AutomaticOptions(c *web.C, h http.Handler) http.Handler {
-	fn := func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
-		// This will probably slow down OPTIONS calls a bunch, but it
-		// probably won't happen too much, and it'll just be hitting the
-		// 404 route anyways.
-		var fw *httptest.ResponseRecorder
-		pw := w
-		if r.Method == "OPTIONS" {
-			fw = httptest.NewRecorder()
-			pw = fw
-		}
+type autoOptionsState int
 
-		h.ServeHTTP(pw, r)
+const (
+	aosInit autoOptionsState = iota
+	aosHeaderWritten
+	aosProxying
+)
 
-		if fw == nil {
-			return
-		}
+// I originally used an httptest.ResponseRecorder here, but package httptest
+// adds a flag which I'm not particularly eager to expose. This is essentially a
+// ResponseRecorder that has been specialized for the purpose at hand to avoid
+// the httptest dependency.
+type autoOptionsProxy struct {
+	w     http.ResponseWriter
+	c     *web.C
+	state autoOptionsState
+}
+
+func (p *autoOptionsProxy) Header() http.Header {
+	return p.w.Header()
+}
 
-		for k, v := range fw.Header() {
-			w.Header()[k] = v
+func (p *autoOptionsProxy) Write(buf []byte) (int, error) {
+	switch p.state {
+	case aosInit:
+		p.state = aosHeaderWritten
+	case aosProxying:
+		return len(buf), nil
+	}
+	return p.w.Write(buf)
+}
+
+func (p *autoOptionsProxy) WriteHeader(code int) {
+	methods := getValidMethods(*p.c)
+	switch p.state {
+	case aosInit:
+		if methods != nil && code == http.StatusNotFound {
+			p.state = aosProxying
+			break
 		}
+		p.state = aosHeaderWritten
+		fallthrough
+	default:
+		p.w.WriteHeader(code)
+		return
+	}
 
-		methods := getValidMethods(*c)
+	methods = addMethod(methods, "OPTIONS")
+	p.w.Header().Set("Allow", strings.Join(methods, ", "))
+	p.w.WriteHeader(http.StatusOK)
+}
 
-		if fw.Code == http.StatusNotFound && methods != nil {
-			methods = addMethod(methods, "OPTIONS")
-			w.Header().Set("Allow", strings.Join(methods, ", "))
-			w.WriteHeader(http.StatusOK)
-		} else {
-			w.WriteHeader(fw.Code)
-			io.Copy(w, fw.Body)
+// AutomaticOptions automatically return an appropriate "Allow" header when the
+// request method is OPTIONS and the request would have otherwise been 404'd.
+func AutomaticOptions(c *web.C, h http.Handler) http.Handler {
+	fn := func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+		if r.Method == "OPTIONS" {
+			w = &autoOptionsProxy{c: c, w: w}
 		}
+
+		h.ServeHTTP(w, r)
 	}
 
 	return http.HandlerFunc(fn)
@@ -62,8 +87,6 @@ func getValidMethods(c web.C) []string {
 	return nil
 }
 
-// Assumption: the list of methods is teensy, and that anything we could
-// possibly want to do here is going to be fast.
 func addMethod(methods []string, method string) []string {
 	for _, m := range methods {
 		if m == method {