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Duck, Wild, to Carve
As game is almost universally served as a dainty, and not as a dish to stand the assaults of an altogether fresh appetite, these dishes are not usually cut up entirely, but only those parts are served of each which are considered the best-flavoured and the primest. Of wild fowl, the breast alone is A B WILD DUCK. considered by epicures worth eating, and slices are cut from this, in the direction indicated by the lines, from A to B; if necessary, the leg and the wing can be taken off by passing the knife from C to D, and by generally following the directions described for carving boiled fowl.
Dumplings, Sussex, or Hard. -INGREDIENTS for 6 dumplings.-1 lb. of flour, 1/2 pint of water, 1/2 saltspoonful of salt.
AVERAGE COST, 2d.
Mix the flour and water together to a smooth paste, previously adding a small quantity of salt. Form this into small round dumplings; drop them into boiling water, and boil from to hour. They may be served with roast or boiled meat; in the latter case they may be cooked with the meat, but should be dropped into the water when it is quite boiling.
TIME. to hour.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Dutch Flummery. INGREDIENTS for quart mould. -1½ oz. of isinglass or gelatine, the rind and juice of 1 lemon, 1 pint of water, 4 eggs, 1 pint of sherry, ma- DUTCH SAUCE. deira, or raisin wine; sifted sugar to taste.
AVERAGE COST, 2s. 6d.
Put the water, isinglass, and lemon-rind into a lined saucepan, and simmer gently until the isinglass is dissolved; strain this into a basin, stir in the eggs, which should be well beaten, the lemon-juice, which should be strained, and the wine; sweeten to taste with pounded sugar, mix all well together, pour it into a jug, set this jug in a saucepan of boiling water over the fire, and keep stirring it one way until it thickens; but take care that it does not boil. Strain it into a mould that has been oiled or laid in water for a short time, and put it in a cool place to set. A tablespoonful of brandy, stirred in just before it is poured into the mould, improves the flavour of this dish: it is better if it is made the day before it is required for table. TIME. hour to simmer the isinglass; about 1/4 hour to stir the mixture over the fire.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Dutch Sauce. (For Fish.) - INGREDIENTS.- teaspoonful of flour, 2 oz. of butter, 2 tablespoonfuls of vinegar, 4 tablespoonfuls of water, the yolks of 2 eggs, the juice of 1/21 lemon; salt to taste. AVERAGE Cost, 6d.
Put all the ingredients, except the lemonjuice, into a stewpan; set it over the fire, and keep continually stirring. When it is sufficiently thick, take it off, as it should not boil. If, however, it happens to curdle, strain the sauce through a tammy, add the lemon-juice, and serve. Taragon vinegar may be used instead of plain, and by many is considered far preferable.
Note. This sauce may be poured hot over salad, and left to get quite cold, when it should be thick, smooth, and somewhat stiff. Excellent salads may be made of hard eggs, or the remains of salt fish flaked nicely from the bone, by pouring over a little of the above mixture when hot, and allowing it to cool.
Three short recipes follow the carving note, and all three depend on measurements written in Victorian shorthand. The hinge in two of them is the same: an egg mixture that must thicken without boiling.
- Carving a wild duckThe advice holds: wild duck is carved as long slices off the breast, in the direction the plate marks from A to B. The book treats the breast as the part worth serving, though it allows the leg and wing to be taken off from C to D if wanted. Wild fowl was customarily served underdone.
- Saltspoon and old penceA saltspoonful is roughly a quarter of a teaspoon. The costs given in d. are pre-decimal pence and are of historical interest only.
- Sussex dumplings, proportionsOne pound of flour (about 450 g) to half an Imperial pint of water (about 284 ml) gives a stiff, unleavened paste; there is no fat and no raising agent, which is why they are called hard dumplings. Six dumplings from that quantity makes each a substantial ball. The boiling time has dropped out of the text here, so no fixed figure can be taken from it.
- Cooking them with the meatDropping them into boiling salted beef or mutton broth is the traditional treatment and much the better one; they absorb flavour they otherwise lack. Add them only once the liquid is at a rolling boil, or they slump and thicken the broth.
- Isinglass is not gelatineIsinglass, made from sturgeon swim bladders, is not interchangeable weight-for-weight with modern powdered gelatine, and Victorian recipes generally call for a good deal more of it. For a quart mould that will turn out cleanly, around ½ oz (14 g, or two standard sachets) of modern gelatine is nearer the mark, bloomed in cold water first rather than simmered.
- The flummery custardSet the jug in barely simmering, not boiling, water and stir until the mixture coats a spoon. It should reach about 75-80C; past that the eggs scramble and the sweet wine will not disguise it. Chill overnight, as the recipe suggests, before turning out.
- Dutch sauce is hollandaiseYolks, butter, vinegar and water whisked over gentle heat is the ancestor of modern hollandaise. Keep the pan off direct heat or use a bowl over hot water, add the lemon juice only at the end, and if it splits, a spoonful of cold water whisked in hard will usually bring it back. A tammy is a fine woven cloth used as a strainer; a fine sieve does the same job.
- The cold salad notePoured hot over hard-boiled eggs or flaked cooked salt fish and left to cool, the sauce sets to something between a dressing and a mayonnaise. Refrigerate it and eat it the same day; it is an egg emulsion and does not keep.
Mrs Beeton's book was organised for the middle-class household that carved at table, and the carving notes sit alongside the recipes as a matter of course: knowing that only the breast of a wild duck is worth serving was part of the same body of knowledge as knowing how to thicken a sauce. The recipes here show the range of that household in miniature. Sussex hard dumplings are flour and water, the plainest possible way of stretching a joint of boiled meat, and are still associated with that county. Dutch flummery belongs to the long English tradition of moulded jellies set with isinglass, an expensive imported product from sturgeon that gelatine gradually came to rival over the nineteenth century - the recipe itself offers isinglass or gelatine as alternatives. And "Dutch sauce" is the name English cookery books generally used for what French kitchens were calling sauce hollandaise - both names point, however vaguely, at the Low Countries, though the connection is traditional rather than documented.