No. 1944

Bustard en Daube—Wild Goose

Outarde en Daube--Oie Sauvage

As a bustard is nearly always tough, it is necessary to hang it up for several days. Pick, singe, draw and clean it well; cut off the pinions, neck and drumsticks; detach the legs from the body as well as the breasts, and lard all these meats with large shreds of raw ham, then season; lay them in a vessel with a pint of vinegar and as much water, let macerate for twenty-four hours. Cover the bottom and sides of a large stone stock pot with thin slices of fat pork, range in the bottom a few small carrots and turnips in the shape of three-fourth inch balls, a few onions, a bunch of aromatic herbs and two boned and blanched calf's feet, dredge over whole peppers and cloves then put in the carcass, legs and breast pieces after draining them from their marinade. Moisten to half the height of the meats with white wine, cover over with bards of fat pork, and reduce the liquid for a few moments. Close the vessel hermetically with a piece of paper and a common plate half filled with water and let it cook very slowly in the oven for six to seven hours, according to its tenderness; remove carefully and dress on a large dish with the calf's feet and vegetables; skim the fat from the strained liquid and strain it again over the meat.

← No. 1943 Ducklings, with Oranges Duck & Goose No. 1945 Goose a la Chipolata →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

The dish as written is built around a bird that can no longer be taken or bought. The points below explain the obstacles rather than adapting the method.

The bustard itselfThe great bustard (Otis tarda) and the little bustard (Tetrax tetrax) are protected across most of their European range and both are of conservation concern; the great bustard was hunted out of Britain in the nineteenth century and reintroduced birds there are legally protected. There is no ordinary commercial supply of bustard meat, and the only alternative the recipe itself offers is the wild goose of its title.
The wild goose alternativeWild geese are game everywhere they are hunted, which means seasons, licences and bag limits, and in the United States migratory waterfowl cannot be sold. A legally taken bird belongs to the hunter, not to a shopping list. For a goose daube, work from a current recipe written for the bird you actually have.
The hanging"Hang it up for several days" is uncontrolled, ungutted ripening at whatever temperature the larder happened to be; the bird is not drawn until after it comes down. Kitchens of Ranhofer's day accepted a degree of high flavour in game that modern food handling does not, and the instruction carries no temperature, no time bound and no guidance on when to stop.
No oven temperature at allThe original says only "very slowly" for six to seven hours, sealed under paper and a common plate half filled with water. The plate weights and seals the paper; the water in it can also be watched or topped up as it evaporates. Either way the instruction gives no figure to transfer to a modern oven.
Vessels and cutsA "stone stock pot" is a glazed earthenware braising crock; "bards" and "thin slices of fat pork" are sheets of back fat used as a self-basting lid. Boned and blanched calf's feet are the gelatine source that sets the strained liquid, and they are still sold by butchers who handle offal, though rarely off the shelf.
The marinadeA pint of vinegar with a pint of water for twenty-four hours is a tenderising soak, not a preservative cure. It penetrates very little and will not compensate for a bird past its point, which is part of why the method is best read as a period document.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) was Charles Ranhofer's record of what Delmonico's in New York could actually put on a plate, and its game chapters read as an inventory of a market that no longer exists. Bustard was a prestige bird in European cookery — large, slow-growing, and by Ranhofer's day already scarce enough that continental writers treated it as a rarity — while American market hunting still shipped wild waterfowl and shorebirds to city restaurants by the barrel. The paired title, outarde and oie sauvage, tells you the kitchen expected either to arrive and treated them the same way: hung, larded with ham to compensate for lean dark muscle, soured in vinegar, then sealed in earthenware with calf's feet so the cooking liquid would set to a glaze. That is the classic daube logic applied to a tough wild bird. What ended the practice was not taste but law: the Lacey Act of 1900 and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 closed the American trade in wild game, and bustards fell under protection as their European populations collapsed.