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Four Shalots (One ounce of Butter)
One ounce of Butter.
Half ounce of Flour.
The rind of one Orange.
The juice of one Lemon.
Half teaspoonful of Cayenne.
A sprig of Thyme.
Cut up the duck into neat pieces, and stew the trimmings of the duck in the gravy, with the port wine, shalots, orange rind cut very thin, the lemon-juice, cayenne, and thyme, thicken with the butter and flour worked together. Stew this till reduced to half its quantity, then strain over the pieces of duck, warm all together without boiling, and serve.
This is the sauce half of a salmi of duck, and the printed ingredient list has clearly been cut short — the title itself is the tail end of it. Assume roast or part-roast duck, about half a pint of good brown gravy or duck stock, and a glass of port alongside the four shallots.
- The missing quantitiesGravy, port and duck are named in the method but not measured anywhere on the page. For one duck, something like 1/2 pint (10 fl oz, a scant 1 1/4 cups) of stock and 2-3 fl oz of port would reduce sensibly to the half-quantity called for.
- ShalotsThe old spelling of shallots. Four of them, finely chopped, is a generous but correct amount for this style of sauce; the reduction and straining take the raw edge off.
- The hinge: no boiling at the endThe duck is already cooked. Once the strained sauce goes over the pieces, hold it below a simmer — around 160-170F — just long enough to heat through. Boiling squeezes the juices out and turns breast meat grey and stringy.
- Beurre manié, not a roux"Butter and flour worked together" means kneaded raw into a paste and whisked into the hot liquid in small pieces. It thickens as it cooks out; give it a few minutes of gentle simmering before straining or the sauce tastes of flour.
- Orange rind cut very thinPare it with no white pith at all, and pull it out with the strainer. Pith and long stewing both turn the sauce bitter.
- Half a teaspoon of cayenneThat is aggressive by modern palates in a sauce this small. Start with a quarter teaspoon, taste after reduction concentrates it, and add more if wanted.
- The trimmingsWing tips, neck, carcass scraps and any skin go into the sauce for body and are discarded at the straining. This is where the depth comes from, so do not skip it.
- YieldOne duck treated this way serves three, or four as a course in a longer meal. Serve with something plain — plain boiled rice, or croutons of fried bread as was usual for a salmi.
This is a salmi in all but name: a method, generally traced to French practice of some standing, for turning already-roasted game or duck into a second, dressier dish. The trimmings are stewed down with wine, aromatics and citrus, the sauce is strained, and the good pieces are merely warmed in it — a technique that belongs to the era of large joints and the standing brown stock pot, when nothing left the kitchen unused. Port with duck, and orange rind with duck, are both familiar pairings; the orange survives today mostly in the French-derived canard à l'orange. The garbled ingredient heading — "Four Shalots (One ounce of Butter)" — looks like a truncated list, perhaps running over from the previous page, with instructions written for a cook who already knew roughly what a salmi wanted.