No. 1931

Ducklings a la Bordelaise—Sauted

Canetons Sautes a la Bordelaise

Cut up two ducklings into five pieces each, obtaining the two legs, the two wings and one piece from the breastbone; pare them nicely, leaving on the pinions, but suppressing the bone from the legs, saute in half clarified butter and half oil with the addition of four ounces of bacon cut in three-sixteenth of an inch squares, the well-chopped livers, two teaspoonfuls of chopped shallot, the same of parsley and a soupcon of garlic; moisten with white wine, add half a pound of finely chopped cepes, four ounces of cooked ham cut in eighth of inch squares, espagnole sauce (No. 414), and some tomato puree (No. 730). Remove at the first boil, dress the duck, pour the sauce over, garnish the extremities with paper frills (No. 10), and serve immediately.

← No. 1930 Duckling a l'Andalouse Duck & Goose No. 1932 Duckling a la Bourguignonne—Fried →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with stockpots already on the stove, so two of the four sauce components are cross-references. The rest is a straightforward duck sauté, but the timing of the pieces is where it succeeds or fails.

The hinge: legs and breast do not cook alikeTwo ducklings jointed into five pieces each gives you legs that want 30-40 minutes of gentle cooking and breast pieces that are done in 10-15. Start the legs and wings first, add the breast pieces later, or you will have one or the other wrong. "Remove at the first boil" applies to the finished sauce, not to the duck.
CèpesC"pes -- C"pes are porcini, Boletus edulis. Half a pound fresh is the intent; if using dried, roughly 1 to 1.5 oz soaked in warm water is the usual equivalent, and the strained soaking liquid is worth adding with the wine.
Espagnole and tomato puréeNo. 414 is a brown sauce built on veal stock and browned mirepoix, thickened with roux. A good reduced veal or duck demi-glace stands in for it. No. 730 is a cooked, reduced tomato purée rather than canned paste; about 2-3 tablespoons of paste loosened with stock approximates it. Figure roughly 2 cups of sauce total for two birds.
Unstated quantitiesThe white wine and the sauce volumes are left to the cook. Half a bottle of dry white for the moistening is reasonable, reduced by half before the sauce goes in. A "soupçon" of garlic means one small clove, no more.
Clarified butter and oilThe half-and-half mix is there to raise the smoke point for browning. Ghee or clarified butter with a neutral oil does the same job; whole butter alone will scorch.
The liversChopped raw duck livers go in with the aromatics and both flavour and lightly bind the sauce. They cook through in the sauté; if the ducks come without livers, chicken livers substitute directly.
"Suppressing the bone from the legs"Most likely he means removing the thigh bone while leaving the drumstick intact, so the piece lies flat and cooks evenly, though the text does not specify which bone. The pinions are the terminal wing joints, and the recipe says explicitly to leave them on.
Paper frillsNo. 10 is Ranhofer's instruction for cutting and fringing paper cuffs to slip over exposed bone ends. Purely decorative and entirely optional.
YieldTwo ducklings in ten pieces serves four generously, six at a formal table with other courses. Serve with something plain, rice or boiled potatoes, since the sauce is rich with bacon, ham and demi-glace.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York and published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of that house's repertoire, which is why so many entries assume you already have espagnole and tomato pur"e at hand. "" la bordelaise" in nineteenth-century French cookery usually signalled red wine and shallot, and often marrow, but the label was applied loosely; a c"pe garnish also travelled under the name, and that is what it attaches to here. C"pes grow abundantly in the pine woods of the Gironde and are strongly associated with Bordeaux cooking. The combination of c"pes, shallot, garlic and a whisper of tomato is the southwestern French treatment for almost any saut"ed bird or piece of meat. Ducklings in this period meant young birds of a few months, smaller and more tender than the mature ducks used for braising.