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Broiled Devilled Duckling
Singe, cut off the head and feet from a tender duckling, split open through the back without separating, neatly draw, cut away the spinal bone, enclose the bird in a towel and neatly flatten with a cleaver, season it all around with a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper, then rub it with a tablespoon oil, arrange on a double broiler and broil for ten minutes on each side. Remove, spread a devilled butter over the duckling, then roll it in bread crumbs and broil again for two minutes on each side. Remove, dress on a hot dish, decorate with a little watercress and serve.
A spatchcocked duckling, grilled twice: once plain, then again under a coat of mustard butter and crumbs. The method is sound, but duck's fat content and the leg-versus-breast problem need managing on a modern broiler.
- Devilled butterThe recipe doesn't spell it out. It is usually softened butter worked with dry or prepared mustard, cayenne, a little Worcestershire and sometimes lemon and chopped shallot. Roughly 4 tbsp butter to 2 tsp mustard and a good pinch of cayenne will coat one bird.
- "Double broiler"Not a double boiler. This is a hinged wire gridiron that clamps the flattened bird between two grates so it can be turned in one motion over coals. A grill basket does the same job; under an oven broiler, use a rack over a sheet pan and turn with tongs.
- Duckling sizeA market duckling then and now runs 3 1/2 to 5 lb, most often Pekin. That is one bird for two people, generously. Anything larger will not cook through in the times given.
- Flattening and drawingSplit through the back, remove the spine and flexible ribs, then press hard with the heel of your hand or a mallet to crack the breastbone flat. An even thickness is the whole point of the exercise; an uneven bird broils unevenly.
- Fat and flare-upsDuck skin renders heavily and dripping fat ignites. Score the skin lightly, keep the bird 6 to 8 inches from the element, and set a shallow pan of water beneath to catch drips. Over live coals, expect to move the gridiron off the flames repeatedly.
- TimingTen minutes a side suits a hot open fire, not every broiler. Cook to temperature: official guidance for poultry is 165F throughout, though many cooks take duck breast off at 135-140F, which carries the usual risk of undercooked poultry. Legs almost always lag, so if the breast is done first, finish the bird in a moderately hot oven (about 400F -- the book gives no oven temperatures).
- The crumb stageTwo minutes a side is a browning step, no more. Crumbs over butter scorch fast under direct heat, so watch it continuously and pull the bird the moment it colors.
- ServingWatercress is the traditional garnish and worth keeping; its pepperiness cuts the fat. Cut the bird in half through the breast, or into quarters, and serve with the pan juices poured off from the fat.
Alexander Filippini spent decades in the kitchens of Delmonico's in New York, and his cookbooks carry the restaurant's late nineteenth-century repertoire into the home. "Devilling" is an English habit that the American chophouse adopted wholesale: an eighteenth- and nineteenth-century practice of dressing meat with mustard, cayenne and other hot seasonings and grilling it fiercely, often as a way of reviving cold roast joints or the bones of a bird already carved. Devilled kidneys, devilled bones and devilled turkey legs were breakfast and supper-room staples on both sides of the Atlantic. Here the treatment is applied to a whole young duckling, spatchcocked and broiled fresh rather than reheated.