No. 2482

Duckling, with Spanish Olives

Caneton aux Olives d'Espagne

Singe, draw and clean a duckling, then bone it from the ribs. Mix in a vessel equal quantities of liver baking forcemeat (No. 64) and chicken forcemeat (No. 73); add two spoonfuls of tomato puree (No. 730) and a large salpicon of cooked foies-gras. With this dressing fill the body and breast of the duckling where the pouch was; sew up the skin underneath, and truss it with the legs thrust inside as for an entree (No. 178); lard over and wrap it in thin muslin, then cook slowly for one hour in some stock (No. 194a). Drain off the duckling, tighten the cloth and let get cold, after unwrapping and untrussing it; detach the breast, keeping it whole, and cut it into slices without misshaping it; then return it to its original place. Wipe the duckling well, and cut a piece from underneath so that it will stand plumb, and set it on a grate; cover it over with some excellent brown chaudfroid sauce (No. 594), finished with tomato sauce (No. 549) and reduced with Madeira wine. After this sauce has drained off well keep the duckling for ten minutes in the ice-box; remove and dress it on a thick layer of jelly that has stiffened on a dish, and surround both sides and front with a garnishing of large Spanish olives, stuffed with foies-gras and covered with brown chaudfroid sauce (No. 594).

← No. 2481 Lobster Dome Garnished with Small Cases The Cold Service No. 2483 Foies-Gras in Border →

For the Modern Kitchen

A cold buffet centerpiece from Ranhofer's The Epicurean, written for a brigade with a larder of standing preparations. Nearly every element arrives by cross-reference, so the work is mostly in assembling the components before the duck is ever touched.

The hinge: cook it gently and cool it fastThe duckling poaches in stock rather than roasting, and the liquid should be kept at a bare shiver rather than a boil; the book gives no temperature. Verify 165F at the center of the stuffing with a thermometer, then chill the wrapped bird in the refrigerator rather than letting it stand at room temperature to "get cold."
The cross-referenced componentsLiver baking forcemeat (No. 64) and chicken forcemeat (No. 73) both arrive by cross-reference; consult those numbers for their exact composition. Any good liver farce and a mousseline of chicken in equal parts will do. Tomato puree here means reduced fresh tomato, not the concentrated canned paste — use about half as much paste and thin it.
Salpicon and foies-grasA salpicon is simply a dice, here of cooked foie gras; the recipe calls it "large" but gives no measurement. Ranhofer's plural spelling foies-gras is period usage. A terrine-style cooked foie gras, chilled firm before dicing, holds its shape in the farce.
Boning from the ribs"Bone it from the ribs" appears to mean a partial boning, leaving enough structure that the bird keeps its shape; the recipe does not spell out what stays in. A 4-5 lb Pekin duckling is the closest modern equivalent to a "duckling"; Muscovy is leaner and larger and will change the timing.
Larding and the muslinLarding means threading strips of fatback through the skin with a needle — optional now, since duck skin carries its own fat, though it does help a poached bird stay moist. The muslin wrap is structural: it holds the stuffed bird in a tight cylinder while it cooks and is retightened as it cools so the slices stay square.
Chaudfroid and the jellyBrown chaudfroid (No. 594) is a brown sauce set with aspic gelatin, here cut with tomato sauce and Madeira. It must be at the point of thickening — coating consistency, lukewarm and just short of setting — when ladled over the cold bird, or it will run off in streaks. Two thin coats give a better finish than one heavy one.
Spanish olivesLarge green Spanish olives, what a modern shop sells as queen or gordal, pitted and stuffed with a piped foie gras mousse. Rinse and dry them well; brine on the surface will prevent the chaudfroid from clinging.
Yield and serviceThe recipe gives no yield; a stuffed duckling of this size goes a long way as one dish among others on a cold table. The assembly suits being done ahead and kept chilled, and it shows best if brought out of refrigeration shortly before serving.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially his working archive: some 3,500 numbered preparations, each assuming the reader has the other 3,499 within reach. The cold service chapter belongs to the age of the buffet froid, when a formal supper closed with a table of glazed, molded and mirror-bright dishes meant to be looked at as much as eaten. Chaudfroid — literally "hot-cold," a sauce made hot and served cold — is generally traced to eighteenth-century French practice and was codified by Carême's generation; by Ranhofer's day it was the standard finish for any cold bird. The boned, restuffed duckling with its breast sliced and reassembled in place is a piece of pure kitchen theater: the diner sees an intact bird, and the carver's work has all been done hours earlier.