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Roasted Canvas-Back Ducks
Procure a fine fat canvas-back duck, pick, singe, draw thoroughly, and wipe it; throw inside a light pinch of salt, run in the head from the end of the head to the back, truss it and place in a roastingpan. Sprinkle on a little salt, put it in a brisk oven, and cook for eighteen minutes; arrange on a very hot dish, untruss, throw in two tablespoonfuls of white broth, and serve with six slices of fried hominy for garnish, and currant jelly on a dish. Red-head and mallard ducks are prepared in exactly the same way as canvas-back.
Ruddy Ducks, Broiled Select a good, fat ruddy duck and prepare it by singeing; after picking it thoroughly, draw and wipe it well, then split it through the back, but take care not to detach the pieces, then put the duck on a dish with a little salt and half the quantity of pepper, to which should be added a tablespoonful of melted butter, and broil for four minutes on each side. When cooked dress the bird upon a hot dish on a little maitre d'hotel butter, decorate with watercress, and serve.
Ruddy Ducks, Roasted Pick, singe and draw, wiping well a good, fat ruddy duck, and dredge inside a pinch or two of salt, then draw its head through an opening at the base of the neck and put it in a roastingpan, add a little more salt and set it in a brisk oven, cooking for about ten minutes. When it is done put it on a hot dish, untruss and pour a little good white broth inside the bird; cut in slices, garnish with a little fried hominy, together with some currant jelly.
Oscar's game-bird cookery assumes a hunter's kitchen and a very hot oven. The essential point is that these are lean wild ducks, roasted rare and fast; nothing here works if the bird is treated like a supermarket duckling.
- Availability and the lawCanvasback, redhead, mallard and ruddy duck are migratory waterfowl protected in the United States under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. They may be taken only by a licensed hunter in season under bag limits, and cannot legally be bought or sold; in Oscar's day market gunners supplied hotels freely. A wild bird from a hunter, or farmed duck as a substitute, is the only route to this dish now.
- "A brisk oven"The book gives no temperatures; a brisk oven is conventionally reckoned somewhere around 400-450F, i.e. near the top of a domestic range. The method depends on high heat and a short stay: eighteen minutes for a canvasback (typically two to three pounds), ten for a ruddy duck (roughly a pound).
- What eighteen minutes gives youA breast that is frankly rare, red at the centre, with the legs undercooked. That was the nineteenth-century standard for wild duck and it is still how game cooks serve canvasback. Wild waterfowl carry the usual risks of undercooked poultry, so treat rare duck as you would rare beef and judge for yourself.
- The head"Run in the head from the end of the head to the back" is obscure as printed; it appears to describe skewering the neck and head back along the bird to truss it, with the head left on and served with the carcass. Skip it and truss conventionally with string if the presentation is not wanted.
- White brothA light, unsalted veal or chicken stock, unthickened and uncoloured. Two tablespoonfuls poured into the cavity at the table loosens the juices; it is a moistening, not a sauce.
- Fried hominyHominy grits cooked thick, spread in a pan to set, chilled firm, cut into slices or fingers and fried in butter until crisp. Six slices per bird. Plain polenta made the same way is the closest equivalent if hominy grits are not to hand.
- Maitre d'hotel butterSoftened butter worked with chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper, chilled and sliced. It melts under the broiled ruddy duck and stands in for a sauce.
- YieldA canvasback serves one generously or two modestly; a ruddy duck is a single portion. Currant jelly is not optional in this tradition -- the sharp sweetness is the counterweight to the strong, dark meat.
The canvasback was the most prized table bird in nineteenth-century America, and its reputation rested on diet: birds wintering on the Chesapeake and the Susquehanna flats fed heavily on the rootstocks and winter buds of wild celery (Vallisneria), which was generally credited with giving the flesh its particular nutty flavour. Before the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 ended commercial market hunting, barrels of wild ducks moved by rail to the great hotels and restaurants, and a canvasback on the menu carried the same weight as diamondback terrapin. The Waldorf served them the orthodox way -- very hot oven, very short roast, rare, with currant jelly and fried hominy, a pairing that turns up in American cookbooks of the later nineteenth century. The ruddy duck, a small diving duck, was the cheaper second string, and the fact that Oscar gives it both broiled and roasted suggests it came through the kitchen in quantity.