Salmi of Duck
Take the giblets of a duck, stew them gently in veal gravy seasoned with cayenne, 3 finely shred shallots, and some pepper and salt. Roast the duck, cut it up, and lay it in a stewpan with the gravy. Simmer till quite hot, then squeeze a bitter orange into the sauce, strain it over the duck, and send to table hot. More seasoning may be added for the English palate. Salmis are great favorites with French epicures; they are a species of moist devil, sufficiently piquant, as a rule, to please a Frenchman's taste. Time: twenty minutes to roast; twenty minutes to stew. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A salmi is a two-stage dish: the bird is roasted only part way, then finished in a sauce built from its own giblets. The success of it lies in keeping the second cooking brief, so the duck warms through without stewing to shreds.
- The hinge: do not let it boilOnce the carved duck goes into the gravy it should sit at a bare simmer, twenty minutes at most, just long enough to heat through and take on the sauce. A rolling boil dries the breast and turns the sauce cloudy.
- "Roast the duck" means part-roastTwenty minutes' roasting leaves a whole duck distinctly underdone, which is intended here because the pieces finish in the pan. The recipe gives no oven temperature or bird weight. Carve and simmer promptly rather than holding the half-roasted bird warm.
- GibletsThe heart, gizzard and neck stand up to long gentle stewing; the liver does not, and is best added in the last few minutes or it turns grainy and bitter. Modern ducks are often sold without giblets, so ask a butcher or buy a bag of duck or chicken hearts and gizzards separately.
- Veal gravyThis means a brown veal stock, reduced and lightly thickened, the standard sauce base of the period. A good unsalted brown chicken or veal stock, reduced by a third, does the same work; season at the end, since reduction concentrates the salt.
- Bitter orangeA Seville orange, the sour marmalade orange, whose fresh season is short and falls in midwinter. In its place use the juice of half a sweet orange with a squeeze of lemon or lime, added off the heat so the freshness survives.
- Shallots"Finely shred" means sliced into thin slivers rather than chopped, and they should soften in the gravy, not brown.
- "A species of moist devil"Devilled meant heavily peppered and sharpened, so the cayenne is not incidental. The instruction to add more seasoning for the English palate is an invitation to push the pepper and the acid further than seems polite.
- ServingStated as enough for four or five, which is optimistic for one duck unless there is a substantial garnish; four is realistic. Strain the sauce over the pieces as directed and serve on a hot dish, since duck fat sets quickly as it cools.