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Broiled Teal Duck
Have 3 fat teal prepared for cooking, and take off the heads. Split into halves without completely dividing, and season with a saltspoonful of salt, half as much pepper, and a tablespoonful of olive-oil. Roll them well in the oil and broil over a clear but not too hot fire, for ten minutes on each side. Have ready in a hot dish half a dozen slices of toast; lay half a teal on each slice, and cover with half a gill of maitre d'hotel butter sauce. Serve hot, with a garnish of watercress.
A market-era game recipe written for birds that arrived whole and unfrozen. The method is sound, but the timing belongs to an age that liked wildfowl cooked through.
- Cook it far less than statedA teal is the smallest of the dabbling ducks, well under a pound dressed, with breast meat barely an inch thick. Ten minutes per side turns it grey and livery; 3 to 4 minutes a side over a hot bed of coals, cooked no further than pink at the thickest part of the breast, suits the bird better.
- "A clear but not too hot fire"Charcoal burned down until the flames are gone and the coals are filmed with grey ash. Under a domestic broiler, set the pan about 4 inches from the element and preheat fully, or the split birds will steam rather than sear.
- Saltspoonful and gillA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so the seasoning is 1/4 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper for three birds. A gill is half a cup, making "half a gill" 1/4 cup of sauce per portion, which is generous; 1 to 2 tablespoons of the butter per half bird is nearer modern taste.
- Maitre d'hotel butterButter creamed with chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper. The recipe calls it a sauce and asks for half a gill, so it was likely melted or softened rather than served firm; a chilled coin of it set on each hot half, to melt into the toast, is the modern way.
- Splitting the bird"Split into halves without completely dividing" means cutting through the backbone and flattening the bird so it lies open like a spatchcock, still joined at the breast skin. Press it flat with a weight for even contact with the grill.
- Wild-shot birdsFeel the breast for shot before cooking and singe off any remaining pinfeathers over a flame. In the United States migratory wildfowl cannot be sold, so anything you cook there will come from a hunter; elsewhere, such as Britain, wild teal may be bought in season.
- YieldThree teal give six halves on six slices of toast: a first course for six, or a main course for three. Watercress is not decoration here, it is the sharp counterweight to the butter.