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Duck, Stewed, with Green Peas
Cut off the rind from half a pound of rather lean bacon. Divide it into pieces of about two inches each way, and fry to a light brown with butter. Dredge in a little flour, and after stirring about three minutes, add a pint of broth, an onion stuck with two cloves, a bunch of sweet herbs, salt, and pepper. The duck should be previously fried or roasted for ten minutes to make it a good colour, then put into the stewpan with the gravy and stewed slowly for an hour and a quarter, or till tender. Meanwhile stew a quart of peas with butter (see PEAS, GREEN, FRENCH MODE OF COOKING). Place the duck and peas on a hot dish, pour over them the gravy strained and thickened, and serve hot.
A braise rather than a roast, and one that depends on the duck being coloured hard first and the fat being taken off at the end. Cassell's assumes a small bird and a cook with broth already made.
- The hinge: skim the fatA duck stewed for over an hour will release a great deal of fat into the pint of broth. Strain the gravy into a wide bowl or jug, let it settle a minute, and lift the fat off before thickening, or the sauce will be greasy and refuse to bind. The rendered fat is worth keeping for potatoes.
- Pint and quartThis is a British book, so the pint is 20 fl oz (about 2 1/2 cups) and the quart 40 fl oz. "A quart of peas" most likely means a quart measure of pods, which shells out to something in the region of 8-12 oz of peas, though the phrase could equally mean shelled peas measured by volume; frozen peas are a fair substitute, added for the last few minutes only.
- Duck size and timingAn hour and a quarter suits a bird of 3-4 lb. A supermarket Pekin duck of 5-6 lb wants closer to 1 3/4 to 2 hours at a bare simmer, and duck leg meat is only pleasant when it goes past 175F/80C and the connective tissue softens. Test by twisting a drumstick rather than watching the clock.
- Bacon"Rather lean bacon" points to a streaky cut with a good proportion of meat rather than modern thin breakfast rashers; pancetta is a reasonable stand-in, though the recipe does not say whether the bacon was smoked. Cut into 2-inch pieces as directed. Because it is salty and the broth may be too, hold back the salt until the gravy is strained and tasted.
- Sweet herbsA bouquet of parsley stalks, thyme and a bay leaf, tied so it can be pulled out. "Sweet" here simply means culinary rather than medicinal, not sugary.
- Stewpan and heatUse a lidded casserole or Dutch oven just large enough to hold the bird. On the hob keep it at a lazy simmer; a 325F/165C oven is steadier and needs no watching. A rolling boil will shred the breast while the legs are still tough.
- ThickeningThe flour dredged into the bacon is a light roux and will not carry a pint of liquid far. After skimming, reduce the strained gravy by a third or whisk in a small beurre manie; the intended result is a coating gravy, not a floury sauce.
- YieldA 4 lb duck with the peas and bacon serves three, four at a stretch with potatoes.
Duck with green peas is one of the fixed points of the English cookery year, tied to the brief early-summer overlap when ducklings and the first shelled peas came to market together; eighteenth- and nineteenth-century cookery books print it often, in roast, stewed and ragout versions. This version, with its bacon lardons, floured roux, clove-stuck onion and bunch of sweet herbs, is the French treatment rather than the plain English roast-and-peas /em>canard aux petits pois, and it carries a cross-reference to "Peas, Green, French Mode of Cooking". Cassell's New Dictionary of Cookery, an enormous alphabetical compilation aimed at middle-class households with a cook, appears to give both the English and French handling of a dish under separate headings, which may be why the same bird appears here stewed and elsewhere roasted.