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Wild Duck, Roast
The breast is the dainty morsel. Stuff the duck with crumb of bread soaked in port or claret. Truss it securely, rub it over with the liver, flour it, put it down to a clear brisk fire, and baste constantly. Let the spit turn rapidly. When the bird is sufficiently roasted (and it is generally preferred underdone), take it up, put it on a dish, without gravy, with an uncut lemon on either side of it, and with wild duck gravy in a tureen. The carver will frequently cut a lemon in halves, put salt on one side and cayenne on the other, then score the breast of the duck deeply, squeeze the lemon together over it, and pour a glassful of port upon it. Time to roast the duck, fifteen to twenty-five minutes. Probable cost. 4s. to 5s. per pair.
Cassell's assumes a spit before an open fire and a bird shot that morning. The method translates cleanly to a very hot oven, provided you keep the timings short.
- The hinge: heat and speedWild duck is lean and dark and turns liver-dry the moment it is cooked through. Roast at 450F for 15-25 minutes depending on size, and pull the bird when the thickest part of the breast reads 125-130F for rare, 135F for medium. Rest it 10 minutes, breast down.
- Spit to oven"Down to a clear brisk fire" with the spit turning rapidly means fierce radiant heat and constant self-basting. A preheated roasting tin in the top third of a 450F oven is the nearest equivalent; baste every five minutes, since there is almost no fat of its own.
- What bird this isIn a Victorian English book this is mallard, or the smaller teal and widgeon. A mallard is roughly 1.5-2.5 lb dressed and serves two; teal serve one apiece. A supermarket duck is a farmed Pekin or Barbary, considerably heavier and much fattier, and needs a longer, gentler roast than this.
- Crumb of breadThat means the soft interior of a loaf torn up, not dried breadcrumbs. Soaked in port or claret it works mainly as a flavouring device that perfumes the cavity and holds moisture, and it will come out sodden. You can discard it, or use a halved onion and a bruised orange instead.
- Rubbing with the liverThe raw liver is smeared over the skin so it browns into a savoury glaze. If your duck comes without giblets, skip it, or work a little chicken liver into softened butter and rub that on.
- ShotAny bird from a shoot may carry lead pellets and the bruised flesh around them. Feel along the breast and thighs before cooking and warn whoever is carving.
- Table serviceNo gravy on the dish is deliberate: the skin must stay crisp. Serve the gravy separately, and set out lemon halves with salt on one and cayenne on the other, as described, plus a glass of port to pour over the scored breast. The result is closer to a sauce made at the table than a dressing.
- Cost and yieldFour to five shillings a pair is a note from the Victorian game market and tells you nothing useful now. Reckon one mallard for two people with the usual accompaniments, or one per person if appetites are serious.
Roast wild duck of this kind was a fixture of the English game season, and Cassell's treats it as a gentleman's dish rather than a family one: no vegetables in the cavity, no gravy on the plate, and a carving ritual performed in front of the guests with lemon, cayenne and port. The lemon-and-cayenne service is old and widely attested for wild duck, and is often said to have been used for hare as well, on the sound principle that acid and heat cut the strong, slightly livery flavour of a fast-flown bird; the same logic survives in the orange sauces served with duck today. The instruction that the bird is "generally preferred underdone" is worth noting, since it shows that a rare wild duck was expected rather than avoided. The confident price per pair reflects a legal market in wild game that no longer exists in the same form: in the United States the sale of wild-shot migratory waterfowl is prohibited, while Britain permits the sale of some wild duck in season, so a modern cook is likely to buy farmed duck or get a wild one from a shoot.