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Duck, Wild, Roast
The essentials to be observed in roasting wild duck are, first, to keep the gravy well in the breast of the bird, and, next, not to lose the flavour through over-dressing. Pluck and draw carefully, wipe out the inside with a clean cloth, cut off the head and neck, and scald the feet, which are either to be rested on each side of the breast or trussed like those of a fowl. Put the duck before a brisk fire for five minutes to brown the outside and protect the gravy, then baste plentifully with butter till done. Dredge with flour to give it a nice frothy appearance, and serve with a gravy in the dish, or in a tureen, if preferred. Make a gravy as follows. Boil down the necks and gizzards in a pint of water till reduced to half a pint, or take half a pint of veal gravy, add to it a slice off the end of a lemon or orange, an onion, three or four leaves of basil, a blade of mace, and a little pepper and salt; boil all together, strain, and add a glassful of port wine and the juice of a Seville orange or lemon. Serve hot. Time to roast, twenty to twenty-five minutes. Probable cost, 4s. to 5s. the couple. Allow two for a dish.
Cassell's is describing a bird turning on a spit before an open fire, which browns from the outside in and stays rare at the bone. Reproducing that in an oven means starting very hot and working fast.
- "A brisk fire"The book gives no temperature; read it as a very hot oven, or a hot pan sear on the breast before the bird goes in. The five minutes of fierce heat is there to set the skin and keep juices in, and the roasting time assumes it has happened.
- Twenty to twenty-five minutes means rareThat is the whole point of the recipe: a mallard roasted this briefly comes out pink to red at the breastbone. Official guidance for all poultry, wild included, is 165F throughout; game cooks who accept the risk pull the bird at 130-135F in the breast. Know which you are choosing before you start.
- Bird size varies enormously"Wild duck" here most likely means mallard, around 2 to 2.5 lb dressed. Teal are much smaller and want 12-15 minutes, widgeon somewhat smaller; a large mallard may want the full 25. The recipe's two birds to a dish will stretch to about four modest servings.
- Buy it dressedThe plucking, drawing and scalding of the feet are unnecessary for anyone buying oven-ready wild duck. If you are working from a shot bird, check carefully for lead pellets and the bruised, blood-shot flesh around their track, and cut that away.
- Basting and the flour dredgeWild duck carries almost none of the fat of a farmed Aylesbury or Pekin, which is why butter is basted on rather than fat poured off. The final dusting of flour over hot butter puffs and crisps into the "frothy appearance"; do it in the last two or three minutes or it tastes raw.
- Glassful of portA wine glass in Victorian usage is about 2 fl oz, so 2 to 3 fl oz of port. Add it after straining and let it boil briefly to take the edge off the spirit.
- Seville orangeSeville oranges are bitter, sharp and only in the shops for a few weeks in midwinter. Out of season, use the juice of a lemon with a strip of orange zest, or equal parts orange and lemon juice.
- Mace and basilA blade of mace is one piece of the dried aril of nutmeg, roughly a quarter teaspoon ground. The wording "leaves of basil" suggests fresh rather than dried; four leaves in half a pint of gravy is a whisper, which is what is wanted alongside port and bitter orange.
- The gravy is the fallbackNecks and gizzards reduced in water give a thin stock at best. Half a pint of good veal or chicken stock, as the recipe allows, will produce a better sauce with less trouble.
Wild duck was market game in Victorian Britain rather than farm produce, arriving in London from the Norfolk and Lincolnshire decoys and the Somerset levels through the winter months, which is why Cassell's quotes a price by the couple and why the sauce reaches for the Seville orange and port of a January larder. The pairing of duck with bitter orange is old and well travelled: the French *à la bigarade* sauces, built on the same sour orange, are generally traced to the same instinct that sharp fruit cuts the strong, slightly livery taste of a wild bird. What dates the entry most clearly is its horror of "over-dressing". Roasting before an open fire gave a cook direct control of the heat and a bird that could be taken off the spit in twenty minutes; the insistence on keeping the gravy in the breast belongs to a kitchen where the fire, not a thermostat, was the instrument.