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Teal, Filleted
A handsome dish may be made by half roasting the birds, then taking them down, dividing them into neat joints, and stewing these for eight or ten minutes in half a pint of good brown gravy rather highly seasoned, and flavoured with port or lemon-juice. When sufficiently dressed the birds should be neatly dished upon toast, and should have the gravy strained over them. A little mushroom sauce should be sent to table in a tureen. Three or four birds will be required for this entree. Time, half an hour. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A two-stage treatment for small wild duck: a fast roast to set the outside and render some fat, then a brief stew in seasoned gravy. The whole point is brevity in the second stage.
- What a teal isTeal are the smallest of the wild dabbling ducks, a dressed bird weighing well under a pound, which is consistent with three or four being needed to serve four or five. They come from a game dealer or a hunter; if none is available, squab or small farmed duck breast and leg behave similarly, though farmed duck carries far more fat.
- Half roastingThe original gives no temperature or time for this stage. A hot oven for a short spell is the sense of it: the birds should be well short of done when they come out, since the stewing finishes them.
- The hinge: eight to ten minutes and no longerTeal breast is lean and dark and turns dry and livery past medium. Joint the birds, slide the pieces into gravy that is barely at a simmer, and pull the breast at about 130 to 135F internal. If the legs are still tough, give them alone another five minutes rather than holding the breast in the pan.
- Half a pint of gravyAn imperial half pint is 10 fl oz, near enough 1 1/4 cups. 'Good brown gravy' in a book of this period usually meant a brown stock-based sauce, often thickened with browned flour or a little roux; a strong game or veal stock will serve.
- Port or lemon juiceThe two are alternatives, not a pair: port for sweetness and depth, lemon for a sharp lift against the fat. A tablespoon or two of either into the gravy is enough at this volume.
- Neat jointsTwo breast halves and two legs from each bird, wings and carcass reserved. The carcasses, cracked and simmered, will improve the gravy if you have twenty minutes in hand.
- The toastIt is there to catch the juices, so it should be dry and firm rather than buttered and soft. Cut it to fit the platter and dish the joints on top, then strain the gravy over.
- Lead shotWild-shot birds may carry pellets and bone splinters near the shot channels. Feel over the breast and thighs before jointing and warn anyone at table.
Teal appear throughout Victorian and Edwardian cookery books as the small, prized end of the wildfowl range, alongside widgeon and mallard, and were plentiful in London game markets during the autumn and winter season. This entry appears to follow the common habit of giving several treatments for one bird: a plain roast for the everyday, and then a "filleted" or "en filets" version dressed up as an entree for a served dinner, with the bird jointed, a strained sauce, and a second sauce sent separately in a tureen. That structure reflects the French service that English middle-class kitchens were imitating, and the toast beneath is older still, often said to be a survival of the medieval sop or trencher of bread set under roasted birds to take the juices.