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Wild Duck Soup
1/2 CARROT, SLICED 3 SMALL ONIONS, SLICED 4 TABLESPOONS BUTTER 1/2 CUPS WHITE WINE GIBLET BROTH TURNIP BALLS, BLANCHED SUGAR SALT AND PEPPER Put duck giblets with water in one saucepan to cook to broth, the duck in a separate stewpan with carrot, onions, salt and butter. Fry slowly, stir, add wine, reduce. Mash giblet broth through colander, pour over duck, and simmer. Cook blanched turnip balls with a very little sugar, in butter. When rich brown add a little of the soup and reduce. Remove duck, slice breast, put it in a tureen, cover with turnips, skim fat off soup and pour skimmed soup in tureen.
There are as many ways to make duck soup as there are to skin a cat or a catfish. Its richness has set it aside in our slang "That's duck soup!" something easy to do, easy to take, just as we say "It's ducky!" for anything we like very much.
In hunting camps and ritzy hotels alike there are occasional duck soup-making contests for gourmets, one of which was won by O. O. McIntyre with a potage consisting of 2 ducks with their own giblet gravy, 2 cups mashed anchovies, 3 pints consomme, 1 cup Marsala wine, butter, mushrooms and seasonings.
We like to stir some steamed wild rice in ours, even if it does cost a dollar a pound unless you're paddling your own canoe in Minnesota marshes and can reach right out for the wild rice heads and shake the grains into the bottom of the boat, as the Indians do.
A classic game-bird consommé built in two pots: giblets to broth, the bird itself browned with aromatics and deglazed with wine. The ingredient list assumes you already have the duck in hand and gives no quantity for it.
- Quantity of duckFigure one whole wild duck (mallard-sized, roughly 2 lb dressed) for two servings, or two smaller teal. The vegetable and wine amounts given suit one bird.
- The wine measureThe list reads "1/2 cups white wine," which is not a coherent amount; the intended figure was probably either 1/2 cup or 1 1/2 cups. Anywhere from half a cup to a cup and a half will serve one duck, and since the wine is reduced before the broth goes in, err low rather than high.
- Turnip ballsCut small spheres from peeled turnip with a melon baller, or simply dice into half-inch cubes. Blanch two minutes in salted water, then glaze in butter with a scant teaspoon of sugar until browned at the edges.
- Straining the giblet broth"Mash giblet broth through a colander" means pushing the softened liver, heart and gizzard through to thicken and enrich the liquid. A fine sieve and the back of a ladle does it better; a food mill is closer to the original intent.
- Don't overcook the breastWild duck breast turns liver-dry and tough well before the legs are tender. Simmer the bird gently, pull it when the breast reaches 130-135F, carve and hold it, and let the legs and carcass go on flavoring the pot.
- SkimmingWild duck renders less fat than farmed, but what comes off is strong. Chilling the finished soup briefly and lifting the set fat gives a cleaner result than skimming hot.
- Wild riceThe closing suggestion works well. Cook it separately until the grains split, then add to the tureen; simmered in the soup it clouds the broth and swells past its welcome.
- YieldAs written, two generous servings as a main course, or four as a first course if you stretch it with additional consommé.