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Roast Duck
Epicures prefer young ducks, cooked rare, and when so prepared they are not stuffed. Should filling be preferred, use potato stuffing, putting it in very hot. Some people consider that ducks have a strong flavor, and to absorb this flavor lay cored and quartered apples inside the body. These apples are removed before the duck is sent to the table. Celery and onions also may be placed inside the duck to season it and improve the flavor, two tablespoons of chopped onion being used to every cup of chopped celery, which may consist of the green stalks that are not desired for the table. This stuffing is also removed from the bird before it is sent to the table. Truss the duck, sprinkle it with salt, pepper and flour, and roast in a very hot oven (400-480 degrees F.) fifteen to thirty minutes, provided the duck is young and is desired rare. Full-grown domestic ducks should be roasted at least one hour in an oven only moderately hot and should be basted every ten minutes. Serve with giblet gravy and apple sauce or grape or currant jelly. Green peas should also be served with roast duck.
A magazine-era set of directions rather than a single recipe, covering rare young duck, full-grown birds, and the aromatics used to tame a strong flavor. A few of the numbers need translating, and the doneness advice needs care.
- The oven numbers"Very hot (400-480 degrees F.)" is a wide range by modern standards; around 425F is a practical setting for a high-heat roast. The book gives no figure for "an oven only moderately hot"; period tables generally put that phrase somewhere in the region of 350-375F.
- Doneness is the hingeFifteen to thirty minutes will not bring a whole duck anywhere near a safe interior temperature, whatever epicures of the period preferred. Rare duck today means a seared, sliced breast; a whole bird should reach 165F in the thigh, which takes roughly 1.5 to 2 hours at 325-350F for a 5 lb duck.
- Cavity aromatics, not stuffingThe apples, celery and onion go in loose and are discarded, so they are seasoning rather than a side dish. This is the safest way to use the cavity, since it does not slow the heat reaching the meat the way a packed stuffing does.
- "Putting it in very hot"If potato stuffing is used, loading it hot is at least prudent, whatever the original reasoning: cold filling in a bird cavity sits for hours in the danger zone. Better still, bake the potato stuffing in a separate dish and skip the problem.
- Duck size then and nowCommercial Pekin ducks run 4.5 to 6 lb and are mostly frame and fat. Figure one duck for two to three people, or half a duck per person if appetites are good.
- Fat managementThe recipe says nothing about the fat. Prick the skin over the breast and thighs before roasting and pour off the rendered fat once or twice; it keeps the skin from stewing and gives you a jar of duck fat.
- Basting every ten minutesUnnecessary with a fatty modern duck, which bastes itself, and each oven door opening costs heat. Turn the bird once or twice instead.
- Giblet gravyModern birds often come with only the neck and a small packet, and sometimes with nothing at all. Simmer neck, heart and gizzard (not the liver, which turns the stock bitter) while the duck roasts, then chop and add to the pan juices.