No. 394

Essence of Tame or Wild Ducks

Essence de Canards Domestiques ou Sauvages

This is made with the fragments of six roasted duck bones, broken up and put into a saucepan with one pint of mirepoix stock, one quart of veal blond (No. 423), a bunch of parsley garnished with bay leaf and thyme, mignonette and nutmeg. Let simmer for one hour, then add the juice of an orange and a lemon, also their peels; strain through a napkin or a silk sieve.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A duck-flavoured reduction base from Ranhofer's cross-referenced system, where one number leans on three others. Read it as a fortified stock rather than a sauce in its own right.

Veal blondBlond de veau is a pale veal stock, veal bones and trimmings lightly coloured but not browned to darkness. A good unsalted veal or light chicken stock stands in; avoid anything already seasoned, since this liquid will be reduced later in whatever sauce it serves.
Mirepoix stockNot raw diced vegetables but the strained liquid from a mirepoix preparation: aromatic vegetables with ham or bacon and herbs, moistened with wine and stock. A pint of well-flavoured vegetable-and-wine stock covers it.
MignonetteCoarsely cracked white or black peppercorns. A pinch, cracked under a pan, not fine-ground pepper, which clouds the essence and turns harsh over an hour's simmer.
The bones matter more than the meatSix roasted carcasses is a large amount of duck for three pints of liquid, which is the point. Chop or crack them so the marrow is exposed, and include the roasting-pan scrapings; without that concentration the result is just duck-tinged broth.
Keep it at a bare simmerA rolling boil emulsifies duck fat into the liquid and clouds it permanently. Hold it at the barest tremble for the hour and skim fat and scum from the surface throughout.
Citrus goes in lastJuice and peel are added at the end of the hour, not the start. Long cooking makes the pith bitter and drives off the volatile oils in the zest; a few minutes off the heat is enough to take the perfume.
StrainingA napkin or silk sieve means a fine cloth filter. Dampened muslin or a coffee filter in a chinois gives the same clarity. Let it drip rather than pressing, which pushes sediment through.
Yield and useExpect roughly a quart after simmering and straining. It is an auxiliary, meant to be reduced into duck sauces, salmis and bigarade, or used to moisten a braise; on its own it will taste underseasoned because it is meant to be.
StorageChill quickly, lift off the fat cap, and keep three or four days refrigerated. It freezes well in small portions, which is the sensible way to justify saving six carcasses.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as an encyclopaedia of a professional kitchen, and the essences form its structural core: numbered, cross-referenced, and useless in isolation. An essence in this sense is a French kitchen term for a stock reduced and concentrated to carry one dominant flavour, made to be spooned into other sauces rather than served. The economics are worth noting, since a house roasting ducks in quantity had carcasses in quantity, and the essence turned what would otherwise be waste into the thing that made the next day's salmis taste of duck. The bigarade family of orange-and-duck sauces was well established in French cooking by Ranhofer's time, and the orange and lemon here point the essence squarely toward that use.