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Duck Pie
Previous to putting the duck into the pie-dish, boil it for about fifteen minutes, but first cut off the neck and wings, which should be stewed for a few minutes with the giblets in a stewpan containing two ounces of good butter, a bunch of herbs, an onion sliced, an anchovy, a blade of mace, some salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste. When the butter has dissolved, pour in half a pint of boiling water, and stew gently for a full hour; then strain and add the mixture to the gravy from the duck. Cut up the duck neatly, and arrange it in the pie-dish, adding more seasoning if required; skim off all fat from the gravy, which should be cold, and pour it into the dish. Cover with a puff paste, or any other crust liked. Time, one hour to bake. Sufficient for four or more persons.
A Victorian two-stage pie: the bird is parboiled and jointed, the trimmings become a concentrated giblet gravy, and the two meet cold under pastry. The order matters more than any single quantity.
- Cold gravy is the hingeThe instruction to skim and cool the gravy before pouring it in is not fussiness. Warm liquid melts the butter in puff paste before it reaches the oven, and the underside collapses into a paste-like layer. Chill the strained stock until it sets to a light jelly, then spoon it over the jointed duck.
- Half a pintAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, about 1¼ US cups. After an hour's gentle stewing it will reduce considerably, which is the point — you want a strong, slightly gelatinous stock from the neck, wings and giblets, not a thin broth.
- Oven temperatureNo heat is given, as was normal in Victorian books, so any figure is a modern reconstruction rather than the book's. For puff paste a workable approach is a hot start, around 425F for 15 minutes to set and lift the pastry, then dropping to about 350F for the remaining 45 minutes so the duck finishes without the crust scorching.
- A blade of maceMace is the lacy outer covering of the nutmeg seed, sold as dried "blades" or ground. One blade is roughly a quarter to half a teaspoon of ground mace, depending on the size of the blade. It is milder and more floral than nutmeg and belongs to this kind of savoury stock.
- The anchovyA single salted anchovy dissolves entirely into the stock and reads as depth rather than fish. One oil-packed fillet, or half a teaspoon of anchovy paste, does the same job. Season with salt only after straining, since the anchovy already carries a good deal.
- Parboiling and fatFifteen minutes in water releases some duck fat and firms the flesh for jointing. Skim the fat from the parboiling water and from the gravy and keep it; it holds refrigerated for weeks and is excellent for potatoes.
- The birdA Victorian table duck was roughly in the 4-6 lb range. A modern Pekin duck is broadly comparable and works directly; a smaller wild duck will be leaner and drier and wants a shorter parboil.
- Yield"Four or more persons" is optimistic for one duck unless the pie is served with substantial vegetables. Treat it as four generous portions.
Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery belongs to the great wave of late-Victorian household encyclopaedias, published in parts and assembled into fat single volumes for the middle-class kitchen. Duck pie sits in a long English tradition of putting roasting birds under pastry instead of roasting them, of feeding more plates and of rescuing the neck, pinions and giblets, which a roast leaves stranded. The seasoning here is thoroughly of its period: mace, cayenne and an anchovy are a combination often met with in Victorian brown gravies, the anchovy doing quietly what a splash of Worcestershire or a stock cube would later do. The instruction to parboil before baking may owe something to the unevenness of oven heat, though fat and toughness explain it at least as readily.