The famous hotels in Europe had certain specialties as well as details of service that never became quite so popular in this country. In Paris, small game birds were served in the chafing dish with great ceremony. I can still see in my mind's eye that most famous of all maîtres d'hôtel, Olivier of the Paris Ritz, unobtrusively watching a waiter flamber a bécasse au fumet with fine cognac, casually walking by the table to make sure that the sauce was just right and would not boil and curdle. How many thousands of bécasses were served in the dining room of that hotel on the place Vendôme! This is how they were prepared.
Bécasses an Fumet (Woodcock Flamed in Brandy)
Bécasses are not usually cleaned like other birds but are cooked with the intestines intact. Season the birds with salt and spread them generously with butter. Roast in a hot oven (450° F.) for about 10 minutes. The meat should be done but not too well done; it should appear rather pink.
Remove the legs and breasts and arrange them in a chafing dish, the legs at the bottom. Spread the breasts with a little melted butter and cover the pan. The water in the lower pan should be hot but not boiling. Chop up the carcasses finely, replace in the roasting pan, and pour over them 2 ounces of brandy. Mix well and rub through a fine sieve.
Add 2 tablespoons of the strained pan juices to enough rouennaise (see page 38) to spread small triangles of toast for garnishing the dish. To the remaining pan juices add an equal quantity of game or poultry gravy and a few drops of lemon juice to make a sauce.
Sprinkle the legs and breasts with cognac and ignite. Pour over them the sauce made from the carcasses and arrange the toast spread with the rouennaise combination around the edges of the dish. Two birds will serve four persons.
Another favorite game dish which we frequently made in Paris was canard à la rouennaise. For this, another special piece of equipment is needed which is usually seen in the first-class Continental restaurants—the duck press. This is a device with a large wheel at the top, operated by the headwaiter or the trancheur, which squeezes out the blood and juice from the bird. After the duck is cooked in the kitchen, it is sent to the dining room to be carved and the carcass to be prepared for releasing the blood and juice to finish the sauce—an operation which gourmets love to watch.
Canard à la Rouennaise (Duck Rouennaise)
Clean a plump, tender duck, stuff with rouennaise (see below), and roast in a hot oven (450° F.) for about 18 to 20 minutes, depending on the size of the duck. Wild duck should always be rare. If it is a tender duck, cut off the legs and broil them for a few minutes because they require more cooking than the breast. Remove the rouennaise stuffing and place it in the center of a chafing dish. On opposite sides place the legs, cut in two pieces, and on the oilier two sides the breasts, thinly sliced.
Chop up the carcass finely (and also the legs if they were too tough to broil), add 2 ounces of cognac and a few drops of lemon juice, and press all together in a duck press. Have a separate heater, a réchaud, ready near the chafing dish and pour on it a small pan containing about ½ cup of sauce rouennaise. Add to this the cognac flavored juice pressed out of the duck carcass. Correct the seasoning.
The duck in the chafing dish should be very hot. Be sure that the water in the lower pan of the chafing dish is kept hot but never boiling, or it is liable to toughen the delicately cooked meat of the bird. Sprinkle it with a little cognac and then pour a little of the sauce rauennaise over it. Put the remaining sauce in a separate serving dish. Serve each person with some of the duck and rouennaise paste and pass the sauce.
Rouennaise
Heat well 2 tablespoons rendered salt pork fat. Add 1 cup chicken or duck livers, a pinch of thyme, 1 bay leaf, 1 teaspoon salt, and a little pepper. Cook for 3 or 4 minutes over a hot fire. Add 3 tablespoons cognac or sherry. Mix all together, pounding well, and rub through a sieve to make a paste.
Sauce Rouennaise (For Duck)
Put 4 ounces of red wine in a saucepan with 5 peppercorns, 1 small bay leaf, a small sprinkling of thyme, and 1 teaspoon chopped shallot or onion. Bring to a boil and cook until reduced to one third the original quantity. Add 2 or 3 tablespoons brown sauce or good gravy or 1 tablespoon beef extract, bring to a boil, and remove from the heat. Add 2 or 3 duck livers, finely chopped, mix in well, and rub the sauce through a fine sieve. The blood and juice from the duck press may be combined with this and poured over the sliced duck in the chafing dish.
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