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Fricassee of Ducks
507. Half roast and cut up a couple of ducks, put them in a stewpan and season. Cover them with a mixture of onion, sage, and sweet marjoram chopped, tomatoes scalded, peeled, and quartered; ketchup, one ounce of butter rolled in bread-crumbs, one glass of port-wine, and a little powdered mace. Add a little water to keep from burning, cover closely, and stew till done thoroughly. Venison, lamb, pigeons, hares, and rabbits, may be stewed in this way.
A two-stage braise: the ducks are roasted part-way to render fat and set the skin, then finished in a covered pan with an aromatic, wine-sharpened sauce. The one thing to get right is the fat — a duck gives up a great deal of it, and if it is not poured off before stewing the sauce will be a slick of grease.
- "Half roast"Roast the birds until the skin has coloured and the fat has run, then joint them and transfer to the pan; the recipe gives no temperature or time. Pouring off the rendered fat (or keeping it for potatoes) rather than tipping it into the stewpan is a modern addition, not in the original.
- KetchupIn cookery books of this period ketchup usually means mushroom or walnut ketchup: a thin, dark, salty condiment (some versions include anchovy), not the sweet tomato sauce. Use a tablespoon or two of mushroom ketchup, or failing that Worcestershire sauce; tomato ketchup will make the dish sugary, especially alongside the tomatoes already called for.
- One glass of portWineglass measures in Victorian books run from about 2 fl oz to a quarter-pint. Around 1/3 cup suits two ducks; more than half a cup will dominate.
- Butter rolled in bread-crumbsThis acts as the thickener, with crumbs standing in for flour much as in a beurre manie. Work the ounce of butter into two or three tablespoons of fine dry crumbs. The recipe adds it with the other ingredients at the start; adding it later instead will keep it from sitting and scorching, but that is a departure from the text.
- Sage and marjoramQuantities are left open. A tablespoon of chopped sage and two of marjoram is a reasonable reading for two birds; sage is assertive and will run away with the pot if you double it.
- Stewing time"Till done thoroughly" means 45-60 minutes at a bare simmer, tightly covered, until the leg meat pulls easily from the bone. Duck breast will be well past pink by then, which is the intention here — this is a braise, not a modern rare-breast preparation.
- The sauce at the endLift out the pieces, skim the surface fat, and reduce the liquor hard if it is thin. The tomatoes should have collapsed into the sauce rather than kept their quarters.
- YieldTwo ducks will feed four to six, depending on size and on what is served alongside. The same treatment given to rabbits or pigeons will need considerably less time — 30-40 minutes for pigeon.