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Gravy for Ducks
Put the giblets into a stewpan with a large onion, two or three sage-leaves, a salt-spoonful of salt, half a salt-spoonful of pepper, and two pints of stock. Simmer gently for two hours. Strain the gravy, thicken it with a table-spoonful of flour, mixed smoothly with a little cold water, boil once more for a quarter of an hour, and serve in a tureen. A glass of port or claret is an improvement. Probable cost, 2d., exclusive of the wine. Sufficient for a pint and a half of gravy. (See also GRAVY FOR GOOSE OR DUCK.)
A giblet gravy of the plainest sort: long simmer, strain, thicken, serve alongside roast duck. Nothing here has gone wrong with age, but several of the measures and proportions need translating.
- GibletsThe neck, gizzard, heart and (optionally) liver of the bird — one duck's worth is meagre for two pints of stock, so use the giblets from two birds or supplement with a duck neck or a few wing tips. Leave the liver out if you dislike a bitter edge; it clouds the gravy and can turn the flavour livery over two hours.
- Salt-spoonA Victorian salt-spoon is roughly a quarter teaspoon, so this is about 1/4 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper for two pints. That is very light seasoning by modern taste; season again after straining and reducing, when the concentration is known.
- StockTwo pints here means two Imperial pints, about 40 fl oz or 1.1 litres. Chicken or veal stock stands in perfectly; a strongly seasoned commercial stock will need the added salt cut back.
- The thickeningA tablespoon of flour slaked in cold water will thicken a pint and a half only lightly — a pouring gravy, not a coating sauce. Whisk the slurry into the simmering liquid rather than the reverse, or it will lump.
- The final boilA quarter of an hour is longer than needed to cook out flour, but it is doing a second job: reducing and concentrating. Five minutes at a steady simmer removes any raw-flour taste; carry on longer only if you want the gravy tighter.
- SageTwo or three fresh leaves, not dried — dried sage over two hours turns dusty and dominant. Sage with duck is the English convention, following the sage-and-onion stuffing the bird was usually roasted with.
- The wineA "glass" in this context is usually reckoned at about 2 fl oz, though the measure was never standard. The recipe does not say when to add it; adding it with the flour gives it time to cook. Port sweetens the gravy noticeably, claret keeps it savoury.
- YieldA pint and a half, as stated — about 850 ml. Skim the fat from the surface before straining; duck giblets throw off a good deal.
Cassell's belongs to the era when the gravy was made from the bird's own offal as a matter of course, because the giblets came attached; the costing of twopence, exclusive of wine, reflects that thrift. The sage and onion echo the standard English stuffing for duck and goose, a pairing often linked to the older dietary idea that sharp, aromatic herbs corrected the richness of fatty birds; the same logic is commonly claimed for apple sauce with pork. The cross-reference to "Gravy for Goose or Duck" shows that these Victorian dictionaries carried more than one version of a preparation under different headings.