SC - sekanjabin relatives

[lilinah@earthlink.net]

Le Menagier de Paris  	Translated by Janet Hinson

SAUCE TO BOIL IN PIES OF YOUNG WILD DUCK, DUCKLING, YOUNG RABBIT OR WILD
RABBIT. Take lots of good cinnamon, ginger, clove, grains, half a nutmeg
and mace, galingale, and grind very well, and soak in half verjuice and
half vinegar, and the sauce should be clear. And when the pie is just
about done, throw this sauce inside it and return to the oven to boil
once.

(Note that the young wild duck are those which cannot yet fly until they
have felt the August rain.)


You can tell young ducks from old ones, when they are all the same size,
by the quills which on the young ones are more tender.--Item, you have to
know which ones are from the river, with delicate black toe-nails and red
feet, while those from the stable-yard have yellow feet. Item, the crest
of the head, that is to say the top, is green throughout its length, and
sometimes the males have a white patch across their necks at the nape,
and they all have very changeable plumage, including that on top of the
head.

Wood Duck also; note that they come every three years.

Note that at Besiers they sell two sorts of wood pigeons, one sort being
small, and they are not the best, for the large ones have a better flavor
and eat acorns in the woods like pigs do; and they are eaten au boussac
like a coney, and cut in fourths: and sometimes in a young wild duck
sauce, and roast a la dodine; or if you want to keep them, let them be
put in larded pastry. And they are in season from Saint Andrew's Day
(November 30) until Lent, and they are only available every three years.

II. Another Meat Dinner of Twenty-four Dishes with Six Platters.

Fourth dish. River ducks a la dodine, tench both in soups and molded with
hot sauce[8] 26, fat capons in ...........

Supper. - Soup of twelve dozen goslings or of ten ducks

Chiquart
Pottages combining meat and duck, or other poultry

...and check that the meat is not overcooked, because the kid and veal
are more tender than the poultry. And when your meat is cooked to the
right point and one wants to arrange it for serving, put your meat
separately and put it on serving dishes and then put the said broth on
top....

Platina
Milham
Book V.
3.  On Goose and Duck
[anecdotes on geese]
Ducks are not much different from geese.  There is value only in the
breasts, as Martial says, and necks; give the rest back to the Cook. 
Goose flesh has warmer force than duck.

Book VI
 2.How Tame and Wild Birds Should be Cooked
Boil amphibious birds, that is, those seeking food on land and water;
goose, swan, duck, crane, stork, and others of almost the same nature. 
[etc.]

Le Viandier de Taillevent
James Prescott
55.  River mallards.
Pluck it dry, put it on the spit without head or feet, and collect the
fat to make the Dodine [Sauce] (to wit, add [almond] milk, wine or
verjuice, with some parsley).  [Make] long thin grilled sops.  Eat it
with fine salt.

These are snippets from my Duck file.  I'd judge that the duck was
expected to be pretty well cooked, from the boiling, soups, fat rendered
out, etc.  I've never eaten duck as rare as you describe.  In fact, I
cook all poultry thoroughly, and have always had it cooked so in
restaurants.  I know we have other professional cooks on the list--how
done is your duck??????


Regards,
Allison,     allilyn at juno.com


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