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Teal, Devilled
Cut the remains of roast teal into neat joints; season well with salt, pepper, cayenne, and a little mustard. Grill over a clear fire for eight minutes, lay the joints on a hot dish, strew a little chopped shallot over, with some chopped parsley, and an ounce of oiled butter.
A leftovers dish: the point is to take cold roast teal and give it a second life under fierce heat. Everything depends on the grill being hot and the birds not drying out.
- What teal isTeal is the smallest of the European wild ducks, a very small bird dressed, so one gives four small joints at best. In most places it is legal game with a season; if you are not shooting or buying from a licensed game dealer, the same treatment works on the carcass of any roast duck.
- "Grill over a clear fire"A clear fire means one burnt down past smoke and flame to steady red heat; in a Victorian kitchen, a gridiron set over such coals. A modern overhead broiler at full heat, rack about 4 inches from the element, is the nearest equivalent.
- Eight minutes is a maximumThe meat is already cooked, so you are only crisping the skin and heating through. Four minutes a side under a hot broiler matches the recipe's eight; teal breast is lean and dark and goes livery and dry if pushed further. Turn once.
- Season with a hand, not a spoonThe devilling here is dry seasoning worked into the cut surfaces. Roughly a teaspoon of mustard powder, a half teaspoon of salt, a good grind of pepper and cayenne on the tip of a knife will cover the joints of two birds. Mustard powder rather than prepared mustard holds better under direct heat.
- Oiled butterButter melted gently until liquid but not browned or separated. An ounce is 2 tablespoons. The recipe adds it after the joints leave the heat, so it dresses the meat rather than bastes it.
- The shallotIt goes on raw, chopped very fine, and is there for bite against the mustard. One small shallot is enough for two birds; more turns harsh in the mouth alongside cayenne.
- ServingTwo devilled teal make a savoury course or a light supper for two, with toast or watercress. Devilled dishes of this kind were commonly served at breakfast or as a late supper savoury, hot from the gridiron on a heated plate.
Devilling was the standard Victorian answer to cold roast game and poultry: hot seasoning, direct fire, and a dish that came to the table sharp enough to disguise the fact it had already been cooked once. The name is generally traced to the eighteenth century, when "devil" attached itself to anything served with a fierce, peppery heat, and by Cassell's day it had settled into a fixed method — mustard, cayenne, grill, butter. Teal was abundant on Victorian tables, sold in the game markets in numbers that would be unthinkable now, and small enough that a household might roast several at once and have joints left over.