No. 1920

Duck, American Style—Stuffed

Canard Farci a l'Americaine

Singe, draw, and clean well a young duck, fill the insides with an American bread stuffing (No. 61); truss for roasting (No. 179) and roast it either on the spit or in the oven, three-quarters of an hour should be allowed. Dress it on a hot dish and pour a little gravy (No. 404) around, serving more in a separate sauce-boat.

← No. 1919 Duck a la Siebrecht Duck & Goose No. 1921 Roast Duck →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a professional kitchen with numbered cross-references at hand; the working recipe here is short because the stuffing and gravy live elsewhere in the book. A few points fill in what the modern cook needs.

"Singe, draw, and clean"Singeing burns off the pin feathers and down left after plucking; draw means to remove the innards. A supermarket duck arrives already drawn, so the whole step reduces to pulling out the giblet packet, trimming the neck flap and excess cavity fat, and picking out any remaining pin feathers with tweezers.
American bread stuffingNo. 61 in The Epicurean is the book's bread-based dressing, given elsewhere in the volume. Any competent bread stuffing stands in. Stuff loosely so heat can move through it.
Stuffing temperature is the hingeBread stuffing inside a bird must reach 165F at its center, and forty-five minutes will rarely get it there in a duck. Either cook the stuffing separately in a dish, or plan on a longer roast and check the stuffing with a thermometer rather than trusting the clock.
The forty-five minute roastThree-quarters of an hour suits a small, young, spit-turned duckling in a fierce fire. A 5-lb Pekin duck from a supermarket wants a good deal longer at 350F, and many cooks start it hot (425F) for twenty minutes to render the skin, then drop the heat. Breast at 135-140F for pink, legs closer to 175F for tender.
Score the fatDuck carries far more subcutaneous fat than the fowl this book calls chicken. Prick or lightly score the skin over the breast and thighs before roasting so the fat renders out instead of steaming under the skin.
Gravy (No. 404)Ranhofer's gravy is a roasting-juice preparation rather than a flour-thickened American gravy; the numbered recipe is worth checking before you substitute. Deglaze the pan with a little stock or wine, skim the duck fat off carefully, and reduce; there will be more fat to remove than you expect.
TrussingNo. 179 is the book's trussing method, drawing legs and wings against the body for even browning and a compact presentation. It is optional; leaving the legs loose helps them cook through to the higher temperature they need.
YieldOne duck serves two generously or three modestly. There is much less meat on a duck than its weight suggests.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) was Charles Ranhofer's summary of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it is organized the way a professional kitchen is: a bird gets a dozen treatments, each pointing back to numbered stuffings, sauces and trussing methods. The dish names are almost all French, so "Canard Farci a l'Americaine" is doing something specific -- the French designation for the bird and the technique, with the stuffing flagged as the American element, since French practice would more likely reach for forcemeat, chestnuts or olives. Duck at Delmonico's may well have been Long Island duckling, a Pekin breed brought from China in the 1870s and raised in quantity on the eastern end of Long Island, though the sourcing is not documented; the trade there was large enough by Ranhofer's day that "Long Island duck" functioned as a mark of quality on menus. The spit that appears as an alternative to the oven was still ordinary equipment in a large hotel kitchen of the period, not nostalgia.