from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
Mallard Ducks
The male has a green collar and head.
www.flickr.com/photos/backwords/5677301579/
When wild duck is on the menu in France go for it; it is entirely different to farm-raised duck. The much darker meat offers a contrast in tastes and textures that outclasses farm-raised duck; a wholly pleasurable experience and as organic and free range as you can get. Wild duck will be on French menus between the end of September and the beginning of February. Each French department sets its own dates for hunting wild game, and so the dates when wild duck is on the menu will vary as you travel around France,
A mallard coming into land.
The wild duck on your menu will be the wild mallard.
Many different wild ducks may be hunted in season, but the duck on your menu will be the mallard duck, the canard colvert in French. Colvert means green collar the identifying sign of the male mallard. The wild mallard is the most common wild duck in France, and probably the world, and it is also raised in captivity and may be on the menu of the restaurant down the street. Nevertheless, neither of those seemingly disparaging statements alters the superb and different taste of the wild mallard.
The wild mallard is mainly vegetarian, and so it will not have the odd flavors of many other wild ducks that spend their time dipping below water into the mud to feed on shrimp and what have you. Ducks are what they eat.
Smoked duck breast salad.
www.flickr.com/photos/ottawaws/2331118020/
Wild duck on French menus:
Canard Sauvage Rôti en Feuilles de Vignes, Navets Nouveaux, et Figues Séchées - Wild duck roasted with vine leaves and served with young turnips and dried figs.
Duck confit with roasted peaches and cherries.
www.flickr.com/photos/sanfranannie/3863540423/
Filet de Canard Sauvage aux Airelles, Mousseline de Céleri - Slices of wild duck prepared with European cranberries and accompanied by a celery puree.
Magret de Canard Sauvage, Jus a la Myrtille, Cèpes et Salsifis Caramélisés - Breast of wild duck prepared with a bilberry sauce and served with wild French porcini mushrooms and carmelized roots of salsify (also called the oyster plant).
Terrine de Canard Sauvage et sa Confiture d'Oignons au Vin de Cheverny – A pate of wild duck served with a sweet onion jam flavored with a Cheverny AOP wine.
Roast duck breast with button mushrooms
and mashed (Parmentier) potatoes
flavored with France’s most flavorsome herb group, Les Fine Herbes.
www.flickr.com/photos/sushi_kato/4531739518/
Tourte de Canard Sauvage et Palombe au Foie Gras de Canard Sauce Grand Veneur – Wild duck and wood pigeon pie accompanied by foie gras (fattened duck liver) and served with a Grand Veneur Sauce. Grand Veneur means a great hunter and the sauce is a traditional one made with red wine vinegar, butter, fresh berries, and crème fraiche. Palombe or Pigeon Ramier, wood pigeon, is another tasty game bird. You will not find wood pigeon on many menus at home so chose it when you can. Farmed pigeon is also a good choice throughout the year. (BTW the painter Picasso called his daughter Palombe).
Duck in caramelized apple sauce.
www.flickr.com/photos/ruthanddave/102281659/
Menus that offer duck, in France as elsewhere, do not distinguish between a male duck, a canard, and a female, a cane, and when a duckling is on the menu, it will be listed as a caneton, a male duckling.
The Dombs and wild duck.
I received my introduction to the wild mallard duck in the small but fast-growing town of Villars-les-Dombes situated in the farming wetlands of the Dombs. The town is just 40 km (25 miles) from the temples of the finest French cuisine in the city of Lyon but set in the heart of the Dombs. Here there are hundreds of ponds and mini-lakes that are freshwater fish farms interspersed with agricultural land. The Rivers Ain, Saône, and the Rhône set the Dombs' borders and from time to time the ponds are drained and worked as naturally rich agricultural land; then, the land that was farmed is rested and becomes ponds and an obvious home for local and migrating birds. Here, at Villars-les-Dombes, in the hunting season, you do not have to travel far to find wild duck. Apart from the local restaurants, there is plenty of wild duck for cooking at home and this is where a French colleague along with his wife invited me to enjoy my first French wild duck, it was prepared with juniper berries,
Female mallard with twelve ducklings.
www.flickr.com/photos/93882360@N07/13763133924/
Menus may indicate a wild duck’s provenance as wild duck aficionados grade the source. Ducks are hunted along France’s Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts as well along inland wetlands. Examples on the Atlantic coast are the Bay of Somme in Picardy also well known for its Pré- Salé lamb and la Brière north of the Loire estuary just 60 km (37 miles) from the city of Nantes. On the Mediterranean coast, the center is the Camargue, the farmland, marshes, rice paddies, wetlands of the Rhone delta are famous for its organic rice and AOP beef the Taureau de Camargue. So whether the duck on your menu listing is the Canard Sauvage de la Dombes or Canard Sauvage de Camargue, it will be the same wild mallard as elsewhere with duck’s local dining choices affecting its taste.
The mallard duck in the languages of France’s neighbors.
(Catalan - ànec collverd, ànec de bos), (Dutch - wilde eend),(German – stockente). (Italian - germano reale), (Spanish - añade real), (Latin -anas platyrhynchos).
The Mandarin Duck
The aix galericulata a long way from home.
Photographed at the Parc Phoenix, Nice, France.
www.flickr.com/photos/berniedup/6950451856/
A few of the other wild ducks in France
France has many other wild ducks including the Canard Chipeau - The gadwall or sand-wigeon; Canard Pilet – the northern pintail; Canard Siffleur – the Eurasian wigeon; Canard Souchet – the shoveler or northern shoveler duck; Sarcelle d'Hiver - Eurasian teal or winter teal; and the Sarcelle d'Été – the garganey. Licensed hunters may be permitted limited hunting of the ducks above, but their daily bags will not appear on restaurant menus.
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Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
Copyright 2010, 2019.
