Duck
The French notion of the tame duck is perfectly given by Grimod de la Reynière. "He appears rarely in a roast at refined tables. His modesty adapts itself better to a couch of turnips after he has been cooked in a succulent braze." The general order is, that the wild duck is to be roasted; the tame duck or duckling either stewed or brazed. If ever the latter is allowed the honours of the spit, he must be barded. In England the duck brazed in turnips is rarely seen, and the roast duck or duckling is in great favour.
Roast Duck or Duckling. A duck should always be stuffed; a duckling may, or may not. The stuffing is the same as for geese, and will be found among the forcemeats. Also duck or duckling should be well done. Perhaps one of the reasons for the dissatisfaction which the roast duck gives in France is that it is roasted, if roasted at all, like the wild duck-very much underdone. Gouffé allows only sixteen minutes for roasting a duck. A duckling will take at least half an hour of a brisk fire; a duck perhaps an hour. When the time comes for serving these birds, let them have a good brown gravy not upon them but around them, and in a boat apart; or else one made from their necks, gizzards and livers stewed down with some browned onions, sweet-herbs and spice. The most common vegetable garnish is green peas or sometimes cresses; but try also cooked endive or celery, turnips browned in butter, and almost any kind of salad. As for potatoes with duck-never. Brazed Duck. The name is given not merely to duck brazed in the ordinary way, but to any arrangement by which it may be both stewed and roasted, which is the object of brazing. Let the duck be half roasted and then stewed; or let it be baked slowly in a stewpan and two or three ounces of butter till it is well browned, and then let it be stewed. This last is the simplest of the methods. Between the baking and the stewing, dredge in two tablespoonfuls of flour, and stir it until well mixed Dutch with the butter. Then pour in with salt, pepper, and a faggot of pot-herbs, stock enough to cover the duck; let it boil up, let it be skimmed, and let it simmer slowly for three-quarters of an hour. Twenty or twenty-five minutes before the duck is ready, turnips are to be put in with it, which have been cut to shapes and browned in butter. At last strain the sauce, remove the grease, see that the seasoning is right, and if the sauce should be too thin, boil it down. Send the duck to table with the turnips. This combination of duck and turnip is supposed in France to belong as surely to the eternal fitness of things as in England it is held that the pre-established harmonies of the universe reach their acme in roast duck and green peas. There is an immense deal of nonsense talked, chiefly in France, about the superlative qualities of the Rouen duck-as if Rouen meant the place. It is a corruption of roan; and the Roan duck is simply the tame duck which has preserved the ruddy plumage of the wild one. The French in a fine burst of patriotism vow that all the ducks of empurpled hue come from Rouen.