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Roasted Canvas-back Duck
Dress a good fat duck, singe it and wipe well; put a pinch of salt inside; run in the head from the end to the back; truss the duck, and lay in a roasting-pan. Sprinkle with salt, and cook in a fairly quick oven for twenty minutes if liked rare,--for thirty if preferred well done. Place on a well-heated dish; untruss, and pour in 2 tablespoonfuls of boiling hot white broth, and serve with a garnish of slices of hot fried hominy and dish of currant jelly. These directions apply equally well to red-head and mallard ducks.
A terse Gilded Age treatment of the most prized American wildfowl, written for a cook who had the bird hanging in the larder and a very hot oven at hand. Two things carry the dish: real heat and a short cook.
- Oven heatA "fairly quick" oven in period usage corresponds roughly to 400-450F. Preheat thoroughly; at moderate heat the bird will dry out before the skin colours.
- Timing and donenessTwenty minutes gives a rare breast in a small wild duck; thirty gives it grey. Wild waterfowl breast is conventionally taken to about 135F and rested, which is what the shorter time is aiming at. If you are cooking a farmed duck rather than a shot bird, treat it as poultry and take the thigh to 165F, which means a longer roast and a rested, sliced breast rather than the whole bird served pink.
- The bird itselfCanvasback is a legal game species in North America under seasonal regulation but cannot be bought or sold, so this is a hunter's recipe. A farmed mallard or a Pekin duckling stands in; a 2 to 3 lb wild duck serves one generously or two modestly, while a 4 to 5 lb Pekin serves three or four and needs its fat pricked and rendered.
- Running in the headThe instruction to "run in the head from the end to the back" appears to describe skewering the plucked head and neck back along the body for presentation, a habit seen with wildfowl in this period. Birds now come headless; truss with string and ignore this.
- White brothA pale unbrowned stock of veal or chicken, unthickened and unseasoned with browning. Two tablespoons poured round the bird is a moistener, not a sauce. Warm the dish properly or it will chill on contact.
- Fried hominyCooked hominy or coarse grits poured into a pan, chilled firm, cut in slices and fried in butter until crisp. Make it the day before; freshly cooked hominy will not hold a slice.
- Currant jellyServed in its own dish alongside, not spooned over. Red currant jelly is a common accompaniment to dark-fleshed wildfowl in books of this period.
- SingeingWaterfowl carry fine hairs that plucking leaves behind. Pass the dry bird quickly over a gas flame or a lit taper, then wipe; do not wash it, as a damp skin will not brown at this heat.