No. 2066

Ruddy Ducks, Roasted

Canards Sauvages, Ruddy Rotis

This duck is roasted either on the spit or in the oven. Pick and take off all the down; singe, wipe and draw, then cut off the wings near the body, suppress the necks, turn in the feet and truss, the same as canvasback (No. 179). Put them to roast on the spit or in the oven for twelve to fifteen minutes according to the heat of the fire and the size of the duck, keeping them rare; take them off and serve with a little clear gravy (No. 404) poured over and garnish with quartered lemons; serve.

← No. 2065 Ruddy Ducks a la Hamilton Wild Duck & Waterfowl No. 2067 Teal Ducks, Broiled →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a bird you cannot buy and a fire hotter than most home ovens. The instructions are sound, but almost everything around them needs translating.

The hinge: high heat, short timeTwelve to fifteen minutes only makes sense at spit-roasting heat; in a domestic oven that means going as hot as the oven will go, somewhere around 475-500F. Ranhofer gives no temperature, only 'according to the heat of the fire.' A moderate oven will dry the bird out before it colours.
Size of the birdA ruddy duck is small: about a pound live, and well under that dressed. The timing given is for that size and does not scale to a mallard, let alone a farmed Pekin.
SourcingWild waterfowl has not been legally sold in the United States since the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. A bird can only come from a licensed hunter in season, and ruddy ducks fall under daily bag limits in most flyways.
ShotAny wild-shot bird should be checked for pellets before roasting and again before serving; embedded shot is easy to bite down on.
Plucking"Pick and take off all the down" is the labour in this recipe. Ruddy ducks are stiff-feathered and densely downed; dry plucking followed by singeing over a flame, as directed, works better than scalding, which tears the thin skin.
"Suppress the necks"Ranhofer's literal Frenchism for remove the neck. "Turn in the feet" means folding the legs back against the body before trussing, the posture he specifies for canvasback at No. 179.
Clear gravyNo. 404 is a strained, unthickened brown gravy, essentially reduced stock skimmed of fat. A reduced duck or game stock, seasoned and degreased, gives the same thing. Nothing floury belongs here.
Rare, and what that meansThe breast is meant to come out red at the centre; the legs on a bird this small will be barely done. This is standard practice for wild duck, but it is genuinely undercooked meat and is not appropriate for anyone who should avoid it.
YieldOne bird per person, with the lemon quarters and nothing else on the plate; the recipe gives no other accompaniment.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer wrote The Epicurean (1894) out of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's, and the wild duck chapter reflects a market that no longer exists: in the late nineteenth century Chesapeake and Long Island waterfowl arrived in New York by the barrel, and restaurants ranked the species with the seriousness now reserved for oysters or wine. Canvasback stood at the top, prized for feeding on wild celery; the ruddy duck, a small diving duck, also sold on the Chesapeake, though below canvasback and redhead. Market gunning on that scale collapsed the populations, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 ended the commercial trade outright, which is why a recipe that once described everyday restaurant work now reads as a document of a vanished supply chain. The instruction to keep the bird rare and serve it with nothing but clear gravy and lemon is the period's whole argument about wild duck: the point was the bird itself, and sauce was regarded as something to hide behind.