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Duck with Marinaded Cucumbers
Place three salted cucumbers in a basin and pour one pint of water and half a teacupful of vinegar over them, and let them marinade for two or three hours. Then cut a small duck into eight pieces, peel and slice one onion and put it into a saucepan with a lump of butter, and fry for a few minutes; put in the pieces of duck, and fry them until lightly browned, pour over one breakfast cupful of stock, add a clove of garlic and a bay leaf, and stew gently at the side of the fire until tender, then drain the slices of cucumber and put them in with the duck to get hot. When prepared, turn all out on a hot dish, and serve.
A quick braise rather than a roast, and the only tricky parts are the two vague cup measures and the fact that "salted cucumbers" are not fresh ones.
- Salted cucumbersThese are brined pickling cucumbers — the half-sour, Eastern European or deli-barrel sort — not fresh cucumbers and not sweet gherkins. The soak in water and vinegar presumably draws off some of the salt. The recipe speaks of "the slices of cucumber" without saying when to cut them; slicing after the soak works well enough.
- The cup measuresA teacupful in this period runs about 5 to 6 fl oz, so half of one is roughly 2 1/2 to 3 fl oz of vinegar. A breakfast cupful is larger than a teacup, generally 8 to 10 fl oz; a cup of stock is a fair reading, and you want just enough to come partway up the duck, not to cover it.
- Cutting up the duckEight pieces can be had as two drumsticks, two thighs, two wings and each breast halved, or by leaving the wings out of the count and quartering the breast. A duck sold as small runs nearer 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 lb; buy a whole one and joint it yourself, since duck portions are rarely sold this way.
- Deal with the fatDuck throws far more fat than the "lump of butter" suggests the author expected. Brown the pieces skin side down first, pour off most of the rendered fat before adding stock, and skim again before serving or the sauce will be a slick.
- "At the side of the fire"That is a bare simmer with the surface barely moving, around 200F. On a modern hob use the lowest setting with the lid ajar, or move it to a 325F oven. Legs and thighs want 1 to 1 1/2 hours; the breast pieces will be done sooner and can be lifted out and returned at the end.
- Cucumbers go in lastFive minutes in the hot liquid is enough. Longer and they collapse into something watery and grey, and they will also keep leaching salt into the sauce.
- SeasoningNo salt is called for, and the brined cucumbers will carry some of their own. Taste the sauce only after they have been in, then adjust.
- YieldA small duck jointed this way serves three, four at a stretch. The sauce is thin as written; if you want it to coat, lift out the duck and reduce the liquid hard for a few minutes before combining.
Oscar Tschirky was not a chef but the Waldorf's maître d'hôtel, and the 1896 book that carries his name is best read as a record of what a large New York hotel kitchen actually cooked rather than as one man's cookery, though the recipe language culled here ("teacupful," "breakfast cupful," "at the side of the fire") is British domestic usage that sits awkwardly with such a kitchen, so the attribution is worth treating as uncertain. Duck braised with pickled cucumbers is often said to belong to the Central and Eastern European end of that repertoire — salted cucumbers of this kind are a staple of Russian, Polish and German kitchens, where their acidity is used much as a French cook would use vinegar or a wine reduction, to cut the richness of a fatty bird. The method is a braise: joint, brown, moisten with stock, simmer gently, finish with a garnish. That short list of aromatics — one onion, one clove of garlic, a bay leaf — is characteristic of the book, which assumes a cook who knows what to do with them and does not waste words explaining.