No. 1943

Ducklings, with Oranges

Canetons aux Oranges

Prepare two ducklings as for an entree (No. 178). Line a saucepan or a braziere (Fig. 134) with carrots, onions, fragments of fat pork, slices of ham and raw veal, a bunch of parsley garnished with thyme and bay leaf, mushroom peelings and melted fat pork. Lay the ducklings over, the breasts upper-most and pour on a pint of stock (No. 194a); cover and reduce the liquid slowly and completely, then remoisten with half stock and half champagne or white wine, and let simmer until thoroughly cooked. Strain the stock, remove its fat, despumate and reduce it to a half-glaze; take out a fourth part of it and to the remainder, add the blanched and shredded peels of two oranges; let cook again for fifteen minutes. Peel two oranges, free of all pith, remove the pulp between each section and take out the seeds, then add this to the sauce; dish the ducklings, cover with a quarter of the sauce kept aside and surround with two medium oranges cut in four. Serve the sauce separately at the same time as the ducks, or else substitute an orange sauce (No. 511).

← No. 1942 Duckling, with Jerusalem Artichokes Duck & Goose No. 1944 Bustard en Daube—Wild Goose →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with stockpots already going, so the cross-references do most of the work. Everything here is a braise: a bed of aromatics, a slow reduction to a glaze, then a second moistening with wine.

The hinge: reduce twice"Reduce the liquid slowly and completely" means cooking the first pint of stock down until it is a sticky glaze on the vegetables — this is what builds the colour and depth. Keep the heat low and check often; once the liquid is nearly gone the sugars scorch within a minute or two, and a burnt bottom ruins the finished sauce.
A braziereA heavy lidded braising pan. A Dutch oven or any deep pot with a tight lid does the same job. Two ducklings need something wide enough that they sit side by side rather than stacked.
"Prepared as for an entree"Ranhofer sends the reader to his No. 178 for the preliminary dressing of the birds, i.e. the usual singeing, drawing and trussing, so that they hold their shape through a long braise.
Ducklings and yieldA commercial Pekin duck of 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 lb is the modern equivalent. Two birds serve four to six; each duck carves into two breast portions and two legs.
Fat pork, ham, veal"Fragments of fat pork" is fatback or unsmoked salt pork — its job is to lubricate the vegetable bed. Salt pork should be blanched first or the reduced sauce turns too salty. Raw veal here is scrap or trimmings, present for gelatine; a split veal knuckle or a few veal bones will do.
Despumate, half-glazeDespumating is skimming the scum and fat that rise as the strained liquid simmers. "Half-glaze" is demi-glace: reduced until it coats a spoon and is glossy, not syrupy. Reduce over moderate heat and skim continually rather than boiling hard.
Blanch the peelPare the zest in fine julienne with no white pith, then blanch in boiling water and drain — twice if the oranges are thick-skinned. Unblanched peel makes the sauce bitter, and fifteen minutes in the demi-glace will not fix it.
Oranges then and nowNineteenth-century orange sauces leaned on sour Seville or bigarade oranges. With modern sweet navels the sauce can taste flat; a little lemon juice or a spoon of wine vinegar at the end restores the edge the original assumed.
Timing and donenessThe recipe simmers the birds on the stovetop; if you prefer the oven, a moderate heat (around 325F) does the same work. Expect roughly 1 1/2 hours after the second moistening. This is not a pink-breast preparation — the legs need to be genuinely tender, which means well past 165F internal.
ChampagneAny dry sparkling wine, or simply a dry white; the carbonation contributes nothing once it simmers. Half stock, half wine means roughly equal volumes, enough to come partway up the birds rather than submerge them.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry shows how a French restaurant kitchen handled duck with orange before the roasted, pan-sauced version became the standard. The pairing is much older than the Delmonico's dining room: duck or wild fowl with bitter oranges appears in French and Italian cooking from the early modern period, and the classic sauce name bigarade refers to the sour orange used for it. Ranhofer's method is the older, more laborious one — the birds are braised on a bed of vegetables and pork, and the braising liquid itself becomes the sauce after being reduced to a half-glaze. The champagne may be a Delmonico's flourish; Ranhofer offers plain white wine as an alternative in the same sentence.