SC - Our Yule Feast

[Olwen the Odd]

Stefan li Rous wrote:
> 
> Margali commented:
> > but then again, I use a duck press to press my cider...
> 
> Umm. Do I really want to ask this...? What is a duck press? and what
> is it used for? Is this really something you put chunks of duck meat
> into, to squish them flat or something? Maybe this gets rid of all the
> grease in ducks?

This is primarily a 19th-early-20th-century French haute cuisine
thing... there is a preparation called, IIRC, canard au sang, loosely
translated, "bloody duck". Since waterfowl aren't subject to salmonella
and such, their meat doesn't have to be cooked to the same stage of
doneness as, say, chicken or turkey. Duck au sang is made by roasting a
duck rare (rare duck isn't all that different from rare roast lamb or
beef, actually, although rare duck legs are a bit tough, and you have to
remove the tendons more or less surgically if you aren't going to cook
the legs fully), then taking the carved carcass and squeezing/crushing
it in a duck press to extract a rich, red juice which isn't actually
blood, but looks a bit like it. You then use this juice to quickly make
a sauce, usually in a chafing dish at the table, while the duck meat is
still hot, and serve the meat with the sauce. Waiters in fine
restaurants used to wheel the roast duck out to your table on a little
cart, carve, press, sauce and serve right in the presence of the diners.
Benihanas of Paris, essentially.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com