No. 2555

Duckling Pie a la Rouennaise

Pate de Canneton a la Rouennaise

Prepare two pounds of cold pie paste (No. 144), having it rather firm; let it rest for an hour and a half in a cool place. Cut off the pinions, legs and necks from two clean ducklings, bone them entirely, leave the fillets adhering to the skin, remove half the fillet through its thickness and lay on the skin that has no fillet, and detach the meat from the legs to suppress the sinews, then chop up finely; in with this mix a pound and three-quarters of boned turkey forcemeat (No. 65); pound both together for a few moments with four ounces of chopped truffles and four ounces of raw chopped ham, seasoning with No. 2 pie spices (No. 168). Place this forcemeat in a bowl and add to it a third of its volume of baked liver forcemeat (No. 64), passed through a sieve, also a few spoonfuls of cooked fine herbs (No. 385) and half a pound of blanched fat pork cut in quarter-inch squares. Prick the skin of the boned ducklings with a larding needle and fill their insides with a part of the forcemeat, placing the liver well seasoned in the center; reshape the duck to its original appearance. With the bones and parings prepare a succulent stock. Place on a small baking sheet covered with strong, well buttered paper a smooth oval hinged mold; line this mold with two-thirds of the paste and cover the bottom and sides with thin slices of fat pork; on this place a layer of the forcemeat and set one of the stuffed ducklings on the bottom, then cover over with more forcemeat and another duckling on top, finishing with the remainder of the forcemeat, having it dome-shaped on the top, then cover with thin slices of fat pork and over this place a flat of the same paste; press it down on the base of the dome and against the projecting edges of paste to fasten the two together; cut away any surplus paste close to the edges and pinch it with a pair of pincers, or else decorate the dome with fanciful cuts of the same paste; cut a small hole exactly in the center, which is intended to act as a chimney for the steam to escape. Egg over the surface and set the pie in a moderate oven; as soon as it begins to brown cover with paper and cook for an hour and a half. An hour after the pie has been removed from the oven pour in through the opening on top a few spoonfuls of duck fumet (No. 397) reduced to a half-glaze and mixed with a little Madeira wine and jelly; close the opening with a pad of paste. Half an hour later take off the mold and let the pie cool for twelve hours before serving.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a professional garde-manger brigade and leans on numbered cross-references throughout The Epicurean. The dish is a raised pâté en croûte built from two boned ducklings; nothing about it is quick, but the individual steps are all within reach of a patient home cook.

The hinge: seal, chimney, aspicThe whole construction depends on a tight pastry seal with one clean vent hole in the center. If the lid cracks or the seam opens, the juices escape, the crust steams itself soft, and there is no cavity left for the fumet to fill. Cut the chimney before baking, keep it open with a small foil or parchment funnel, and pour the aspic in only when the pie has cooled to about body temperature so the jelly sets rather than soaks into the crust.
Cold pie paste (No. 144)Ranhofer's cold pâté dough is a stiff hot-water or butter-and-egg paste made to stand up to a mold, not a flaky pie crust. Two pounds is about 900 g of dough. The hour and a half rest in a cool place is not optional; warm paste tears when you line the mold.
"A moderate oven"Ranhofer gives no temperatures; a moderate oven is conventionally read as somewhere around 350F/175C. Cover with paper or foil as soon as the crust colors, as directed, and treat the hour and a half as a minimum: a poultry forcemeat this size should reach 165F/74C at the center, which in most home ovens takes longer than ninety minutes.
The moldA smooth oval hinged mold is the classic tin-plate pâté mold with a clip or pin down the side, still sold for terrines en croûte. A springform or a deep loaf pan with a removable base will do; what matters is that the sides come away without prying, since the crust is fragile until fully cold.
Fat porkThis is fresh unsmoked pork fatback or the fat from fresh side pork, not bacon or salt pork unless you desalt it. Blanch it briefly to firm it, then cut into quarter-inch dice for the forcemeat and slice it thin for lining the mold.
No. 2 pie spices (No. 168)Ranhofer gives the blend separately under No. 168, which is not reproduced here; his pie spices are in the same family as French quatre epices, built on pepper, nutmeg and clove with dried herbs. A commercial quatre epices or pate spice is a fair stand-in; season a small fried test patty of the forcemeat and correct the salt before you fill the mold.
Forcemeats and liverThe turkey forcemeat (No. 65) and the baked liver forcemeat (No. 64) are separate preparations that must be made first, and both carry their own salt. Together with the chopped duck meat, truffles, ham and diced fat the filling runs to several pounds, so plan on a full day's work spread over two.
The duck fumetThe stock made from the bones and trimmings is reduced to a half-glaze, slackened with Madeira and jelly, and poured in warm. Powdered gelatin bloomed in the reduced stock gives the same result; you want it liquid enough to run into every gap and firm enough to slice.
Chilling and yieldTwelve hours means twelve hours refrigerated, not on the counter; a pie this dense cools very slowly and should go into the cold as soon as the aspic is in and set. Cut in half-inch slices it serves a large table as a cold buffet centerpiece, and it keeps three or four days under refrigeration.

A Little History

Rouen's ducks have been the basis of that city's cooking for centuries, and the pâté de canard de Rouen was one of the standard show pieces of nineteenth-century charcuterie, sold as a traveling delicacy in the same way Strasbourg sold foie gras and Périgord sold truffles. The Rouennais duck is traditionally killed by smothering rather than bleeding, which keeps the blood in the flesh and gives it the dark, almost gamey character that suits a heavily seasoned forcemeat; the same practice underlies the more famous caneton à la presse. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York for more than three decades, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a working record of that kitchen, and this pie sits in a chapter of cold garnishings alongside game pies and galantines, the class of dish a large restaurant built once and carved from all week. The numbered cross-references are the tell: it is written for a brigade in which someone else has already made the paste, the liver forcemeat and the fumet.