female mallard

male mallard

March 16 Friday 1620/21
“…he [Samoset] asked some beer, but we gave him strong water and biscuit, and butter, and cheese, and pudding, and a piece of mallard, all of which he liked well, and had been acquainted with such amongst the English.”
- Mourts, Applewood ed. p. 5.

There are many kinds of ducks. Mallard is one of the first mentioned in the Plymouth sources, and one that’s pretty common – think of Make Way for Ducklings.

female mallard and ducklings

Ducks Unlimited has a great site to identify -with pictures and sound- many of  the various sorts of ducks that John Josslyn mentions (there’s also hunting information on this site, but you can stay with the identification section) at Duck Identification

“There be four sorts of Ducks, a black Duck, a brown Duck like our wild Ducks, a grey Duck, and a great black and white Duck, these frequent Rivers and Ponds; but of Ducks there be many more sorts, as Hounds, old Wives, Murres, Doies,Shell-Drakes,Shoulers or Shoflers, Widgeons, Simps, Teal, Blew wing’d and green wing’d, Divers or Didapers, or Dipchicks,Fenduck, Duckers or Moorhens, Coots, Pochards, a water-fowl like a Duck, Plungeons, a kind of water –fowl with a long reddish Bill, Puets, Plovers, Smethes, Wilmotes, a kind of a Teal, Godwits, Humilities, Knotes, Red-Shankes, Wobbles, Loones, Gulls, White Gulls, or Sea-Cobbs, Caudemandies, Herons, grey Bitterns, Ox-eyes, Birds called Oxen and Keen, Petterels, Kings fishers, which breed in the spring in holes in the Sea-banks, being unapt to propagate in Summer, by reason of the driness of their bodies, which becomes more moist when their pores are closed by the cold. Most of these Fowls and Birds are eatable.”

- 1674 John Jossyln, Two Voyages to New-England, p. 72. Lindholdt ed.

And, of course, a recipe.

From Giving Thanks: Thanksgiving Recipes and History from Pilgrim to Pumpkin Pie. Kathleen Curtin, Sandra L. Oliver and Plimoth Plantation. Clarkson Potter: New York.2005. pp. 96-7.:

To Boil A wilde Duck.

Trusse and parboyle it, and then halfe roast it, then carve it and save the gravey: take store of Onyons Parsley, sliced Ginger, and Pepper: put the gravie into a Pipkin with washt currins, large Mace, Barberryes, a quart of Claret Wine: let all boyle well together, scumme it cleane, put in Butter and Sugar.

- John Murrell, The Newe Booke of Cookery, 1615

For the Duck:

1 4 to 5 pound duck

2 ½ teaspoons salts

10 black peppercorns

1 medium onion, quartered

Handful of parsley leaves and stalks

3 medium onions, halved vertically, then thinly sliced

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the Sauce:

2 cups red wine

⅓   cup parsley leaves, minced

1 teaspoon ground ginger

¼  cup dried currants or roughly chopped raisins

2-4 blades of whole mace or ½ teaspoon ground

¼ cup cranberries, coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon sugar

4 Tablespoons (½ stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

Rinse the duck inside and out and rinse any giblets included. Place the duck and giblets (except the liver, which can be reserved for another use) in a pot large enough to accommodate them, along with 2 teaspoons of the salt, the peppercorns, the onion quarters, and parsley leaves and stalks.  Cover with cold water and bring to a simmer over high heat. Reduce the heat so the broth comes to a very low simmer.  Skim off the forth, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Arrange the sliced onions in a 13×9-inch roasting pan. Carefully remove the duck from the broth and reserve the broth. Season the duck inside and out with the remaining ½ teaspoon of salt and the ground pepper and then place it on top of the onions. Roast the duck for 25 minutes, then place it on a carving board and cover loosely with foil.

Meanwhile, make the sauce.  Strain 1 cup of the reserved broth and place in a saucepan along with the onions from the roasting pan, the wine, parsley, ginger, currants, and mace. Boil over medium-high heat until the mixture is reduced by two thirds and attains a syrupy consistency.

When the duck has rested for at least 10 minutes, carve it into serving pieces.  Place the meat on a heated serving platter and cover loosely with foil.

Add any juices given off during carving to the sauce and stir in the cranberries and sugar. Simmer for another 30 seconds, then remove from the heat.  Swirl in the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the sauce is silky.  Serve the duck immediately, accompanied by the sauce.

Serves 4-6

NOTE: Simmer the leftover defatted duck broth until it is reduced to one quarter; this makes a very useful stock.  Store in the freezer until needed