Wild Duck with Peas, after Escoffier’s Duckling

Known Ground reconstruction — not personally tested

Escoffier's historical formula specifies domestic duckling. The practical version below is a Known Ground wild-waterfowl reconstruction; it is not presented as Escoffier's wild-duck formula.

The source uses domestic duckling. Wild duck receives a little more stock and gentler covered cooking; the fresh-pea, bacon, and onion composition remains intact.

Instructions

1. Brown the bacon and pearl onions in butter; remove them. Brown the seasoned ducks in the same pot.

2. Add stock, demi-glace, peas, bouquet garni, bacon, and onions. Cover and cook gently at 350°F until the birds reach 165°F (74°C).

3. Remove the bouquet garni. Lift out the ducks and reduce the sauce only enough to coat the peas.

4. Carve the ducks and cover with the peas, bacon, onions, and sauce.

Historical formula

Escoffier browns six ounces of blanched salt pork and fifteen small onions in butter, colors the duckling in the same butter, then cooks everything gently with brown stock, thin half-glaze, one and one-half pints of fresh peas, and a faggot. The sauce is reduced just enough to cover the garnish.

Source note

Source-preserving summary from Auguste Escoffier, *A Guide to Modern Cookery* (1907), a public-domain English edition. Source location: No. 1751, p. 542; 1903 pp. 874–875.