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Stewed Duck with Olives
Prepare and truss a duck, making it as plump as possible, and squeeze lemon juice over it, rubbing it in. Put the duck in a stewpan with a good-sized piece of butter, and brown it all over; stir in one dessertspoonful of flour, and when brown add one breakfast cupful of broth. Remove the kernels from some olives (by peeling them thick), scald them in boiling water, and when the duck is nearly done, add them to the stewpan and cook. When ready, dish the duck and arrange the olives around it; skim the fat off the gravy, pour it over the duck, and serve.
A plain French braise written in the shorthand of a professional kitchen. The two things that decide the result are how thoroughly you brown the bird and how you handle the olives.
- Olives first"Removing the kernels by peeling them thick" most likely means cutting the flesh away from the pit in a thick spiral, the way you pare an apple, leaving generous pieces rather than shreds. A cherry pitter is faster if you do not want the spiral. The recipe does not say which olives; firm ones hold up better than very soft ones.
- Why they are scaldedA minute in boiling water draws out some of the brine and keeps the olives from over-salting the gravy as they cook. Modern olives are often packed in strong brine, so it is worth doing; if you skip it, taste before adding any further seasoning.
- DessertspoonfulTwo teaspoons, midway between a teaspoon and a tablespoon. It is a very light thickening for the amount of liquid, and the sauce is meant to be a gravy rather than a coating.
- Breakfast cupfulA breakfast cup is larger than a teacup: reckon 8 to 10 fl oz, so a generous cup of broth. Add more as the pan dries during the braise.
- TimingNo time is given. A trussed 4 to 5 lb duck needs roughly 1½ hours at a bare simmer, covered, after browning; add the olives for the last 15 to 20 minutes so they warm through without collapsing.
- Skim seriouslyDuck renders a great deal of fat and the instruction to skim is not a formality. Let the gravy settle off the heat for a few minutes and lift the fat with a spoon or a separator, or the sauce will break over the meat.
- The lemonThe juice is rubbed into the bird before browning. Wipe the surface dry before it meets the butter, or the duck will steam rather than brown.
- YieldOne duck serves three, four at a stretch. Rice, or plain boiled potatoes to take the gravy.
Canard aux olives is standard French repertoire, a braise built on the useful fact that the sharpness of cured olives cuts the richness of a fatty bird. Oscar Tschirky, maitre d'hotel of the Waldorf and later the Waldorf-Astoria, put his name to a large compendium in 1896 aimed at readers who wanted hotel cooking at home; it is heavy with dishes of this kind, French in construction and undemanding in ingredients.