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Roast Teal Duck, Currant Jelly
Pick, singe, draw, neatly wipe and truss two nice, fat Teal ducks. Place them in a small roasting pan and season with a teaspoon of salt; glaze them with half teaspoon melted butter. Place in the oven and roast for fifteen minutes, basting once in a while with their own gravy. Remove, untruss, dress on a hot dish, strain the gravy over the birds, and serve with six pieces fried hominy and currant jelly, separately.
A game-bird recipe written for cooks who bought birds in the feather and knew what to do with them. Almost everything that needs explaining here is about the bird itself and the fierce, fast heat the fifteen-minute timing assumes.
- Oven heatThe original gives no temperature because a coal range's roasting oven was simply run hot. Fifteen minutes only makes sense at 450-500F; at 350F a teal will be raw at the bone and grey on the outside.
- What a teal isGreen-winged and blue-winged teal are the smallest of the common wild ducks, dressed weight roughly 6-10 oz. Two birds make two servings. In the US they are hunted under licence and season and cannot legally be sold, so they are not a supermarket item; in the UK wild duck can still be bought from a game dealer. Farmed duck is a different animal entirely and will need far longer.
- DonenessFifteen minutes in a very hot oven gives a rare breast, which is how wild waterfowl was and still is traditionally served. Note that this is well below the 165F internal temperature current food-safety guidance sets for poultry, and wild birds are not inspected.
- Pick, singe, drawPluck dry, pass the bird briefly through a flame to burn off the down and hairs, then remove the innards. If you are given a bird already dressed, all that remains is to wipe it and truss.
- Lead shotRun your fingers over the breast and thighs before cooking and remove any pellets and the bruised flesh around them. Non-toxic shot is now required for waterfowl in the US and UK, but older birds and older habits vary.
- "Glaze with melted butter"Teal carry very little fat of their own. Half a teaspoon of butter is a token; brush them generously, or lay a thin sheet of bacon or pork fat over the breasts for the first ten minutes.
- "Their own gravy"This means the pan drippings, not a made sauce. There will be perhaps two tablespoons. Strain and pour over the birds; if you want more, deglaze the pan with a splash of stock off the heat.
- Fried hominyCooked hominy or coarse grits, spread in a pan, chilled firm, cut into squares and fried in butter until crisp.
- Resting and carvingLet the birds sit five minutes after untrussing. A teal is usually served whole on the plate, or split down the breastbone with poultry shears.
Teal appear constantly on American hotel and restaurant menus of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when wild waterfowl was still sold commercially and a brace of small ducks was a standard autumn and winter savoury. Alexander Filippini, who spent decades in the Delmonico's kitchens before compiling his cook books, wrote for that world: a short, fast roast, minimal seasoning, and the bird's own drippings as the only sauce. The currant jelly served "separately" is the long-standing English and American pairing of a sharp red fruit preserve with game, its acidity cutting the iron-rich flavour of dark wild meat; the fried hominy on the same plate is distinctly American, a starch of the southern and midwestern table that turns up throughout the book alongside European technique. Market hunting of wild ducks was eventually outlawed in the United States, which is why a recipe that once began with a purchase now begins with a hunting licence.