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Widgeon, Gravy For
Put a quarter of a pint of veal stock into a saucepan with an inch of thin lemon-rind, three leaves of basil, and a thin slice of onion. Let the liquor boil a few minutes, and strain it. Put with it the clear juice of a lemon or of a Seville orange, and add a glassful of port and a little salt and cayenne. Send it to table very hot. Or dissolve an ounce of fresh butter in a saucepan, stir into it the strained juice of two lemons, and add a little salt and cayenne. Send the gravy to table in a tureen and very hot. Many cooks score the breast of the bird deeply, and pour the gravy over it; but this plan is not to be recommended, because many persons prefer widgeon without gravy. Sufficient for two birds.
Two sauces for wild duck, one stock-based and one a plain lemon butter. Both are quick, and both are ruined by the same thing: overheating after the final additions.
- The hingeAdd the citrus juice and port off the boil, then bring the sauce back only to steaming. A hard boil after the wine goes in drives off its aroma and leaves a flat, slightly bitter liquid; the butter version will break outright.
- A quarter of a pintAn imperial quarter-pint is 5 fl oz, so a generous half cup. A "glassful" of port in this period is usually reckoned a wine glass, roughly 2 fl oz — a substantial proportion against 5 fl oz of stock.
- Veal stockUnsalted veal or light brown stock gives the body this sauce depends on. A good chicken stock reduced by a third is the practical substitute; avoid cubes, which are far too salty once the sauce concentrates.
- Seville orangeThe bitter marmalade orange, in season only from late December into February. Its juice is sharp and faintly resinous. Out of season, use two parts lemon juice to one part sweet orange juice rather than sweet orange alone.
- Basil in a game sauceThree leaves is deliberately restrained — the basil is infused and strained out, contributing a peppery background rather than any recognisable flavour. Bruise the leaves before they go in and do not leave them steeping longer than the few minutes given, or they turn grassy.
- The butter versionOne ounce of butter to the juice of two lemons is very sharp and will not hold as an emulsion for long. Whisk it together over low heat, keep it barely warm in a jug set in hot water, and serve it within a few minutes.
- The bird itselfWidgeon is a small wild duck, about a pound dressed, and reaches the kitchen only through a hunter or a game dealer. Both sauces suit any strongly flavoured duck, wild or a well-browned domestic breast.
- Yield"Sufficient for two birds" refers to the quantity of sauce rather than the number of diners; a widgeon is variously reckoned one or two portions, so this covers roughly two to four servings.
Cassell's places this among a cluster of sharp, citrus-and-wine sauces intended for wild fowl, a family that descends from the medieval and Tudor taste for pairing rich dark meat with acid — verjuice, then Seville orange, then lemon as it grew cheaper through the eighteenth century. Port appears in British game cookery from the eighteenth century onwards. The closing remark is the more revealing part of the entry: widgeon and other wild duck were widely eaten very plain, carved at table with nothing but their own juices, salt and cayenne, and the compiler's insistence on a separate tureen reflects a real division of opinion about whether a strong-flavoured bird needs a sauce at all. Scoring the breast and pouring hot liquid over it is something many cooks are said to do, and the practice is discouraged here.