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Mexican Ducks
Another one that lays them in the hammocks is Mexican Duck. Bag a brace of them, the bigger and tenderer the better, and tie 2 bay leaves over their fat tummys, dip 'em in a hot sauce made with 1 cup of water and another of onion juice, chant a line of "California, here we come!" and dump in a couple cups of native sherry to start the ducks swimming all over again. A quarter pound of butter will do to make them splutter and half that much olive oil, say 4 tablespoons, helps give that down-Mexico-way smack; besides salt and black or common sneeze pepper, dump in 1/2 teaspoon cayenne and a whole tablespoon of dried marjoram. After sousing the ducks in their neat little vests of bay leaf in this sauce you perch them chirping on the grill and keep on basting with the sauce. Turn them often and when they've acquired a good tan pop 'em into a roasting pan, give 'em a shower bath by dumping over them all the basting liquid that's left and let them sizzle away till they're irresistible.
The recipe gives quantities but no times, no temperatures and no clear indication of duck size, so the cook has to supply all three. Everything below assumes a brace of wild ducks of one to two pounds each, or two domestic ducklings.
- A brace is twoThe sauce as written -- 1 cup water, 1 cup onion juice, 2 cups sherry, 1/4 lb butter, 4 tablespoons oil -- is generous for two birds and will comfortably baste four. It serves two to four people depending on whether the ducks are wild or domestic.
- Onion juiceA cup of onion juice means the strained liquid from grated onion, which takes roughly three or four large onions. Grate them on a box grater and press through a sieve, or pulse in a blender and strain; the pulp left behind can go into the pan.
- "Native sherry"A California sherry, dry to medium. Any dry sherry or fino works; avoid cream sherry, which will scorch on the grill because of the sugar.
- The bay leavesThe recipe ties whole bay leaves over the birds' 'fat tummys'. The leaf shields the fat from direct flame and perfumes it as it renders. Use kitchen twine and soak the leaves first so they do not simply burn off.
- Grill, then ovenThe grilling stage is for colour only; a few minutes a side over medium coals, turning often. The birds then go into a roasting pan with the remaining liquid; the recipe gives no oven and no temperature, and a hot oven of around 400F is one workable reading of 'sizzle away', hot enough to keep the skin taut without stewing the meat in the sauce.
- DonenessNo time is given because it depends entirely on the bird. Domestic duck should be taken to 165F in the thickest part, and the legs benefit from more time than the breast. Wild duck breast is often pulled rarer, at 135-140F and rested, but that is a matter of preference and carries the risk that attaches to any undercooked poultry. Judge by thermometer, not by the tan.
- The pepperThe recipe offers 'black or common sneeze pepper', so the sneeze pepper is an alternative to black rather than black itself; ordinary ground pepper of either colour answers. With half a teaspoon of cayenne and a full tablespoon of dried marjoram in a quart of liquid, the heat is moderate rather than fierce.
- The basting liquidIt has been in contact with raw poultry throughout, so it must go into the roasting pan and cook with the birds, as the recipe directs. Do not reserve any of it to spoon over at the table unless it is boiled first.