September 29, 2021 • 41 mins
This waterfowl is raised for its eggs, and the whole animal is used in different ways in cuisines around the world. Anney and Lauren flock to the science and history behind ducks.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Saber production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Rees and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we
have an episode for you about duck. Yes, I love
the word duck. I always wanted to get a pet
and named it whatever animal was. I always wanted to
get a pet, name it duck, but it never happened
for me. I mean, it's a good word. It's got that,
(00:30):
it's got that hard, hard consonant at the end. There,
all right, we can move on. Um. I love duck.
I love duck, but it is hard for me now
not to think of that speech from a Hannibal the
show about cooking duck. And I won't describe it, but
you can imagine what happens in it. Oh, I don't
(00:53):
remember that one, but goodness I I can indeed imagine. Yes,
I mean it was one of those scenes where he
was going into depth of kind of the gruesomeness of
cooking duck and showing graphics of like is this a
human or a duck? That kind of vibe yeah, yeah, yeah,
So that plays in my head when I eat. Yes,
(01:17):
but it also makes me think of Christmas and having
and loving taking duck in China. Um. But I've also
had it an amazing Mexican dishes and French dishes kind
of all over the place. Duck fat fries. Yeah, goodness.
The last time that we bought a whole duck to
cook at home, um, we we rigged up this cold station,
(01:41):
um with a tray of ice and a box fan
to do like a like a rapid dry age, because
what you want to do is you want to dry
down the skin so it will crisp up well when
you when you cook it. Um. And I cannot recommend
trying this at home, but man, it worked, and that
duck delicious and none of us got food poisoning, so
(02:04):
wins all around. I love this, very very creative. No
food forcing is always good. Um. I have never even
attempted to make duck on any occasion anytime, but the
future yeah, he's before me. It's really not difficult. I mean,
(02:25):
you know, like you know, something like like a confee
will will take a little bit of preparation and and
and and elbow grease and actual grease. Um. But but yeah,
just cook it up a duck breast like you can
if if you if you get a good quality one,
you can just cook it like you had a steak,
and like get a nice ear on it, like a
cast iron. Oh it's so good. It does sound good.
(02:47):
Well hard pivot, But I love this fact. I don't know,
it's such a weird thing. But in Luke Skywalker mentioned
duck and what novels say, shil have a new hope,
which is one of those funny things. I think. He
also mentions a dog, and it's one of those things
of like, huh, galaxy far far away duck, okay, um,
(03:11):
that he's never seen one and he wants to see one.
And now it is a running joke in fan fiction
that I adore when Luke finally gets to see a duck,
and usually the duck is not very happy, not as
happy to see Luke. Sure, sure for for for comedy sake. Yeah,
(03:33):
oh dear, I love it. I adore it. Uh yeah.
I have known a number of very cranky ducks in
my life. Um yeah, and I think we're going to
do like a brief you know, cartoon character duck aside,
but they're usually pretty cranky ducks. Yeah. Well, I you know,
(03:53):
we we we've talked about birds in our opinions about
them before on this your opinions, you also have some
bird opinions, They're just not as strong as mine. I
maintained that birds are dinosaurs with wings, and that makes
them terrifying because they want to eat your eyeballs and
(04:15):
they can reach your eyeballs, and I don't I don't
like that. I I understand you. I understand this fear. Um. However, um,
I uh superproducer Andrew loves birds and uh and through
our travels together, I have grown to better appreciate the
(04:39):
beauty of birds. Um M, I'm a little bit less
upset about them than I used to be. But I
will say that part of my part of my reticence
to accept birds into my life, UM, was growing up
in South Florida. There were a whole lot of really
(05:01):
weird looking ducks everywhere everywhere, like living in all of
the canals and ponds that we had around, and um,
just just just big cranky, like black and white modeled
ducks with these with these weird like red wattles and
and just they and they looked they looked like like
(05:23):
walking angry radiation ducks. Like they looked like cancer ducks.
And I was I was like, oh man, they've been
in those canals. I don't know what's in there with them,
like mm hmm, so so this is my and they
would they would chase you, like if you if they
decided that you were somewhere you should not be, they
(05:45):
would chase you off. I mean, yeah, they could be intimidating.
I do love how we're really delving into your psychee
around birds right at the top here. This is an intervention.
(06:06):
I think you're okay, Lauren, thank you. I do. I
do feel like I'm in a safe place now. Good.
That makes me happy to hear um. Well, I mean
you can always just think of that you're ducking. That
you're ducking Lauren. Yeah, yeah, yes, and you can see
(06:27):
our We talked about it briefly in our Turkey episode.
I think so you can go check that out if
you want to learn more about that, you can you can. Yes, yes,
I'm sorry. I look, it's not my fault. Okay, No, no,
(06:48):
it's not your fault. Not your fault. I mean think
about it this way. You are a podcaster now discussing duck.
Who is one in this equation? Maybe it was you? Actually,
I can't. I mean, those those ducks seemed real smug
about it, to be honest. Yeah, now you're talking about
(07:08):
the Mono podcast, so maybe they did win. I don't know.
I don't know. I should get to our question. Yeah,
I'm not sure if this brings us to our question,
but I think it's time. I think it's time. M
duck what is it? Oh? Well? Uh? Ducks are a
(07:33):
type of bird um used culinarily um and also kept
for the eggs that they lay. Ducks can be wild
caught or they can be raised. They like living near
bodies of water. UM. A lot of their natural diet
would come from aquatic life plants and animals, a lot
of invertebrates involved in there um of course, right, yeah,
(07:56):
they can. They can be raised to um in flocks
of various sizes, and ducklings do grow pretty fast. You
can raise up ducks from hatchlings to slaughter weight in
like two to four months, which is about twice as
long as chickens, but but much shorter than you know,
like mammals. UM. Three breeds of ducks are commonly used
for cooking UM. Smaller mild pecan ducks also called long
(08:18):
island ducks UM, and these are a bread variety of
wild mallards. Then you've got the larger gamy muscovi duck,
which is a different species, and then Mullard or Mullard
which is an infertile cross between those first two types
and are are the type grown for Foi gras production,
(08:40):
and all three look and behave a little bit differently.
Wild mallards are migratory. There. Mallards are the ones where
the drakes or males have green feathers on their heads
UM and gray and brown bodies, and the females are
speckled brown. Though any number of varieties have been bred
from wild ballards, um pecan tend to have a creamy
white feathers and the bright orange feet and beaks. Yeah,
(09:03):
Muscobi are the type that I grew up with in
South Florida. UM they're black and white and have these
red wattles in both the males and females. UM. Different
breeds of mallards are used for egg production, and if
ducks are allowed to swim using using their legs, UM
those muscles are more developed than you would usually see
in land based poultry, and if they're allowed to fly,
(09:26):
they'll also develop their breast muscles UM more than you
would see in chickens or turkeys. Duck meat and eggs
and fat are used in all kinds of ways in
different cultures around the world. UM. The flavor of the
meat and fat tends to be stronger than most chicken
you can get. It's a game year and and and
can be richer. The meat tends to be darker than
(09:47):
chicken meat. Depends on the breed in the specific animal
in question, but duck meat tends to range in color
from pink like pork too deep red like beef. It's
still technically classified as a white meat as an as
a poultry. UM, but culinarily it tends to be classified
as a red meat. I don't know. Yeah, I think
(10:08):
I would say red meat, but I also don't know.
It's not my area of expertise. I have no no clout. Yeah,
there's some there's some semantics involved. Uh. Duck can be
roasted or smoked or stewed whole as you would other birds,
or a butcher to separate the breasts and the legs
and thighs. Um. The breasts can be cooked medium rare
(10:29):
right basically just heated through and seared like you would
a steak. The legs and thighs are a little tougher
and tend to be cooked low and slow, braised or
poached as in com feet, which is a dish in
which meat is poached in fat. Uh. Duck meat can
also be made into sausages or cured and dried like
you would pushudo. The bones can be simmered for stock.
The whole animal can be used. Um. Speaking of soup
(10:54):
and stock, I ran across a recipe for duck borshed
while I was doing my reading. It all comes back
to bors I actually have been seeing a lot of
recipes for bores lately too, and I know it's because
I researched it and Google's like here, like how interesting?
All right? Right? Yeah? I was like, oh no, I
(11:16):
don't think. I don't think that's the kind of borsched
I want to make. But I was very fascinated anyway. Um,
But like I said, the whole animal can be used
like the Organs patte and other dishes made from blended
duck liver are considered delicacies. Or the fattened livers can
be used whole um or or sliced and often sliced
and pan fried, as in for gras um. The whole
(11:40):
heads are sometimes pan fried and served as a delicacy.
The gizzard and heart are also eaten. Um. The skin
can be fried up separately for a crunchy garnish or
a snack. The eggs Duck eggs tend to be a
bit larger than chicken eggs, like half again is large,
maybe with a thicker shell and a larger percentage of
yolk versus white, and are therefore a little bit fatty
year and richer tasting. As with any eggs, though the
(12:03):
diet of the bird that you get your eggs from
really determines the flavor and texture and nutritional content. You
can use them pretty much like you with chicken eggs. Um.
Though if you're sebbing them in for chicken eggs and
a baked goods recipe, um, mind that extra yolk content
and probably try to either measure them by volume or
weight to make sure that you've got about the same
amount that the recipe calls for, because chicken eggs are
(12:25):
round about like three table spoons or one and a
half ounces in volume, and duck eggs, yeah, are going
to be a little bit bigger, a little bit bigger,
um duck fat uh can be used as a frying
or sauteing or baking oil, and when it is, it
imparts some of duck's gamy flavor into whatever it is
(12:47):
that you're making. So yeah, it's pretty posh to use
duck fat and otherwise non duck dishes like French fries
or biscuits. If you buy a whole duck, you can
render fat the fat out yourself, or you can find
it butchers or specialty shops aroundline. Oh so tasty, so good,
so good. But speaking of what about the nutrition, Well,
(13:12):
duck is a good source of protein, has a good
smattering of minerals and vitamins peak, and ducks are the
fattiest duck will help fill you up and keep you
going eat a vegetable always. Duck fat does contain less
saturated fats than many other animal fats. Um like, uh,
(13:32):
it's less saturated fat than like butter or pork lard
or something like that, but it is still higher in
saturated fats than most plant based fats like olive oil. Uh.
And I read I read this one paper about it
was like it was like, well, duck is this great
source of protein and these nutrients, but we it's a
(13:54):
little bit expensive, and like, we can't get people who
aren't familiar with it to eat it. So what if
we make like a Surreaemi type product out of duck
and get it to people like that? And I was
fascinated by this, Yeah, because because it's like, I don't know,
(14:15):
it's it's like suggesting that somebody make like a like
a steak or like an ox tail surreem. I was like,
what are you talking about? But but sure, yeah, however,
however you can get good nutrition to people, I'm into. Yes, absolutely, Um,
we do have some numbers for you. The value of
(14:36):
the global industry for duck meat is growing and is
expected to reach eleven point to three billion dollars per
year over the next couple of years. A world production
of ducks nearly doubled in the decade between and two
thousand three. Nanjing, China, where deck is an iconic dish,
is estimated to go through two million ducks a year,
(14:57):
And there's apparently even a saying there without duck, there
is no feast. Yeah, I've read. I've read it was
thirty million. But either way, that's like a lot of ducks.
It is quite a lot of ducks. A number of ducks. Yes. Uh,
speaking of numbers of ducks as often, there was some
one point to four billion Mallard breed ducks being kept
(15:20):
around the world, and about one point one billion, or
eighty nine percent of them being kept in Asia. Um.
Asia supplies over eight of the world duck meat, and
of that some one comes from China. In Europe, meanwhile,
France is by far the biggest producer. And um, I've
(15:41):
read that in the southwestern region of Gascony, ducks out
number people one. Now see that sounds like your hill
on Earth, Lauren. It sounds like a living nightmare for you.
They're everywhere. Just wake up and they're all outside of
(16:02):
your house watching very specific horror. Oh jeez, yeah, oh yeah,
just the season. Oh goodness. Um. Meanwhile, background China and
Southeast Asia. Apparently some ten of the eggs consumed are
(16:26):
duck eggs. Yeah, I believe I got some pluck eggs
in China. Um. I tried to get to the bottom
of a lot of ducks have a lot of offshoots,
which I find interesting culturally speaking. Yeah, yes, so I tried.
I went on like a brief rabbit hole about all
those carvings people have of like Mallard ducks. When did
(16:49):
that become invoked? I didn't really find a good answer.
I also tried to get the bottom of the game
Duck Duck goose, but mostly what I discovered is that
it may have originated in Sweden, and Minnesota is the
only state to play duck duck gray duck, and they
are very proud of it. They do not like you
saying anything to rock story about duck duck gray duck.
(17:12):
I've never heard of this variation. I love it me either. Yeah,
I would love to hear from listeners about this is it.
I assume it's played the same way as duck duck goose. Yes,
And there are a surprising amount of mostly local articles
being like, yes, well you play duck duck gray duck
(17:33):
and we're proud. Great, And usually they went into the history,
but I don't nothing of it stood out, just like, okay,
you decided to go this route. Cool, But again, I
don't want to offend anybody's very proud of it. Yeah, yeah, no,
let us let us know if you have specific experience
(17:56):
with duck duck gray duck. Yes, I do really like it, honestly. Um,
but all right in the meantime, we have a lot
of interesting history to go through. Oh we do. But
first we're going to get into a quick break for
a word from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsoring, Yes,
(18:23):
thank you. Okay. So ducks are thought to have originated
in Asia thousands of years ago. Um, and we're being
kept in southeastern China somewhere between two two. A little
bit arrange, but that's okay. Yeah. Yeah. The first written
records about domesticated duck date back to four one BC,
(18:47):
so I don't know. Um. Other sources argued ducks were
domesticated much earlier, perhaps three thousand years ago in China.
Excavated Chinese pottery from two thousand five b C. Were
decorated with illustrations of ducks and geese, which doesn't necessarily
mean they were domesticated, but good good, yeah, yeah, and
(19:09):
uh and this is where this is the area where
uh mallards and the variety known as pecan came from. Yes, Um,
the ancient Romans and Greeks may have also domesticated ducks,
but it certainly was not the norm. I loved reading
like these old timey sources. I found there were kind
of judgmental, like that weirdo was keeping ducks. Yeah, the
(19:34):
Rumans did keep wild ducks likely to eat um. Ducks
first appeared in the Ancient Roman Record and thirty seven
b C. And then in the first century c E.
An agricultural writer advised on how to care for ducks,
um which he believed. He thought ducks were much more
difficult than something like chickens. So I think that's kind
of White people thought it was weird. They're like, you
could just do this, You could just do chickens. Why
(19:56):
are you messing with these ducks? Yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes. Uh.
Certain species of duck probably originated in the America's Some
historians theorized that indigenous peoples of Central America may have
actually domesticated duck before the Chinese did. Yes, and in fact,
different species of duck might be native to most continents. Yeah, yeah,
(20:17):
most of them. Um. I mean, because mallards are migratory,
they wound up getting around to a lot of different
places and then settling in and uh, you know, self
creating new varieties and then right being domesticated into and
and and further specialized. Uh. Muscovi are thought to be
from the America's though, and yeah are different, a little
(20:38):
bit bigger, a little bit stock here. Yes, yes, the
Chinese started eating roasted and gas duck in the tenth century,
or at least by the tenth century. In twelve seventy five,
roast duck was mentioned in a depiction of life and
Hong Joe Um and vendors would sell rose duck door
to door and it was well known and Nunging the
(20:59):
first capital of the Ming dynasty, so the dish didn't
make its way to Beijing until after fourteen twenty when
the Young the Emperor relocated the capital to Beijing. And
so desired was duck meat that the Chinese went about
domesticating the mallard duck and from that bred a meteor
white feathered duck that yes, they named the picking duck. Um.
(21:20):
This is the duck used for making the world famous
taking duck, which yes, named for the city Um, though
at first it was called jin Ling duck, jin Ling
being an old name for Nanjing. Getting the skin crispy,
like you kind of talked about, Laura, and while keeping
the meat moist was important to the chefs and cooks
(21:41):
perfecting this dish, and there was a lot about how
they went about managing that or trying to succeed in
that regard. Yeah, I read a lot about that and
various other famous duck dishes, and at a certain point
was kind of like, oh, I don't know, we we
have to do another twenty nine episodes. It was they
(22:02):
went into great detail and still do um twenty nine
episodes since about right. So, at this time, in Beijing
people would roast duck on a large metal fork over
a fire, while and Nanjing they would roast several at
a time in an enclosed oven. Sometime during the Ming Dynasty,
which was the thirteen sixties to sixteen forties, a shop
(22:25):
in Beijing became known for its quality of roast duck,
and this duck was cooked in these enclosed ovens. So
in the following centuries, taking duck skywrocketed and popularity, though
it was still fairly relegated to royalty and the wealthy.
(22:45):
During this time, chefs in Beijing pivoted to using standing ovens,
allowing them to cook the ducks to order, one at
a time, and this method is still in use today
and was perhaps perfected due to the preference of roasted
meats within the Imperial Family records indicate that the Qin
Long Emperor eight roast deck eight times within two weeks.
(23:09):
And I calculate that. I was like, I guess that
is a lot. It's not not a lot. But also
I mean, I mean I would do that if I could, right, Yeah, Yeah,
I just thought that was interesting. I mean, I'm sure
like at the time that was like he was like,
oh the extra evagance. Yes, and the time being seventeen
(23:31):
sixty one when that was recorded. One time chicken and
duck seller Yan Kwan Ren is often credited with introducing
roast duck at large to the Beijing public towards the
end of the nineteenth century. You opened a restaurant in
eighteen sixty four, hiring a bunch of former Imperial Palace
chefs on the staff. They're delicious. Roast deck quickly caught
(23:52):
the attention of the well off in the city. And
you can still get picking duck from this restaurant to
this day, or at least that's what a quick Google
search says. It's still but um surviving war, invasion, revolution,
and I guess now a pandemic. Goodness right right. Moving
over to Europe, records show that ducks still wrote nearly
(24:12):
as popular as chickens are geese in tenth century France.
They may not have been domesticated until medieval times. In Europe,
they started appearing in the archaeological record in the sixteenth century,
and the remains increase in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
So fascinating that somebody looked into this, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
(24:35):
and also just right right, the different the different things
that people consider to be like food and not food,
and how it develops over the years. Colonizers in the
trade of enslaved people's introduced more varieties of ducks to
the America's the Caribbean in Africa in the fifteen and
sixteen hundreds. When they first arrived to the America's um,
some people wrote in amazement about the number of ducks
(24:57):
in the sky, like the sky was black with ducks,
or some thing like that, um and of their delicious flavor,
including John Smith and Charles Dickens hand in Glasses seventy
seven book The Art of Cookery Plain and Easy had
several recipes for duck, including um Ala, Bray's Ala mode broiled,
the French way pie, and a few more. I love
(25:18):
that Ducks are featured in many nineteenth century cookbooks, often
has an essential dish at celebratory feast. Most people mark
the beginning of the commercial duck industry in the US
in eighteen seventy three with the arrival of a handful
of taking ducks to New York. I think it was
like fourteen or something, maybe seventeen um. The ducks were
(25:41):
then introduced to the nearby areas, where the population exploded, yes,
so much so that this is why they're sometimes called
Long Island ducks here in in the States, because they
mostly come from Long Island, and there's just apparently has
been historically since then, like all of these hec and ducks.
(26:03):
I love the ducks. They like settled alvill settle down
in Long Island will be our place raising and selling
ducks had and I'm sure still does have frozen cons
around this time. Chickens and turkeys far surpassed duck is
the most popular poultries in the Americas. But on the
other hand, small farmers found success with them. Ducks foraged
(26:26):
and eight different foods and other poultry, which was useful,
and the feathers were useful for things like clothes and pillows.
I okay, I read a story that I had to
include here. It doesn't have that much to do with food. Well, okay, okay,
technically so. In nineteen eleven in Nebraska, a whole gold
rush was caused when a group of hunters were cleaning
(26:49):
the ducks that they had caught and they found gold
nuggets in the ducks gizzards. Oh what And they were like,
there's gold round here. These ducks must have like eaten
it accidentally when they were, you know, picking insects out
of the water. Um. But the source of the gold
was never found. Where did the ducks get that gold?
(27:15):
That sounds like a fairy tale or something. Anyway, this
is a food show again, purportedly, ducks taking us all
kinds of ways. Um. The Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation
Stamp of the US Duck Stamp program, which my dad
was a big fan of. I didn't know about this though,
(27:35):
was signed into law in It is the only conservation revenue.
Stamp profits goes to acquiring and protecting wetlands. Any waterfowl
hunter over the age of sixteen is required to buy them.
The design has chosen through an annual contest. Recently, featured
on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and it was
quite quite quite funny. I can look that up if
(27:58):
you'd like to learn more. The first French recipe for
something resembling duck a laarrange showed up in the nineteen century.
Duck recipes were fairly common throughout much of Europe by
this time, and by the nineteen fifties through the nineteen seventies,
duck a laarrange was a favorite at dinner parties across
the United States. Rare cooked duck, like in the beloved
(28:22):
French dish margarette descannards, didn't appear in the written record
until the nineteen fifties. A French chef named Andre Dagwin
attempted to cook it like a medium rare steak, and
the popular story goes that Dunguin was attempting to change
the narrative around deck, that it was unsafe and less
(28:42):
cooked until well done. So to do this again, As
the legend goes, his less than reputable plan was to
serve blood red duck to patrons under the pretense it
was rare beef. Yeah yeah, indeed it worked, though thanks
(29:04):
to a glowing review of his duck in the New
York Times, sent by American journalist Robert Daily. This review,
in part let to a surge in popularity for duck
cooked that way in the nineteen sixties. Okay, um, and
then this one. This has to be a whole episode
because I just got so lost and confused. But also
(29:26):
presumably in the nineteen sixties, packets of duck sauce started
to become available in the United States. Um, and people
who have looked into this, and people have looked into this, Um,
there's just so much confusion around it. Um because this
sauce somethink originally came from the plum sauce served with
(29:47):
pa King duck. Okay, and from there things just get
really wonky. In the Midwest and some of the Eastern Seaboard,
duck sauce is usually this bright orange, sweet and sour sauce.
In New England it's a chunk sweet brown sauce. Other
parts of the country do not have duck sauce at
all and might not even know what we're talking about. Yeah,
(30:10):
it's got to be a future episode because it's like
my brain was doing that nebula. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I
I currently have packets of the of the orange like
the the like radioactive again orange kind of duck sauce
somewhere in my home. I don't know why I've kept them.
(30:30):
I do not eat them. I know. It's just one
of those things where it's like it just goes into
that drawer that we all have, even if you know
you'll probably never touch it again, just in case, just
in case, you know you might need some duck sauce.
It's true, you might have someone over and they might
(30:51):
be really into it, and then you'll be the coolest
host ever. In the nineteen seventies, Chinese mere Jaw and
Leigh served roast duck to President Nixon and Henry Kissinger,
among other diplomats. The Nintendo game Duck Hunt debuted in
nineteen eighty four. UM and very brief cartoon aside, which,
(31:15):
by the way, I forgot to look into the ugly
duckling at all, but that's the thing that also exists. Um.
Donald Duck first appeared in print in nineteen thirty one,
Daffy Duck in nineteen thirty seven, Ducktails in nineteen eighty seven,
and the new Duck Hill series in seventeen. I'm sure
there are more cartoon ducks. Of note, those were the
(31:36):
ones that came to my mind. I did remember Howard
the Duck as we were talking about Luke thinking about ducks,
and came out in nineteen eighties. Six has been featured
recently in recent Marvel movies. Yes, Yes, absolutely, which has
been an absolute joy for me. Um, I guess I'll
(31:57):
add to that culture. Note there that the Mighty US
film debut in Oh. Yes, I loved that movie when
I was young. Oh yeah, I I I quack quack
quacked at any number of people. Very good about that,
you're right. Oh, and then there's that duck, the duck
(32:20):
tourists bust thing. Oh, there's a lot of a lot
of things about ducks in our culture. Like I said,
this is so fast. Yeah, oh gosh. And we didn't
even look into rubber ducks. Oh we didn't. Oh now
I want to know everything about rubber ducks. Okay, I
can't do it right now, Um. Tree ducan was trademarked
(32:42):
in nine six, and I had forgot if we if
we learned this last time, I forgot that Paul proved
Home trademarked the tur ducan. He was he was the
the Cajun chef. Um he claimed to have invented it.
That is debated. Uh and right right. We talked about
it a bit in our Turkey episode. Although um, as
(33:03):
we mentioned, they're really um turducan is not even peak,
like putting birds inside of other birds when you're serving them.
That that that was like the late seventeen early eight hundreds.
So yeah, people just went wild, oh yeah, oh yeah,
multi birds like no, no, why stop at three? Come on?
(33:26):
Why don't yourself? What are you giving up? Come on,
let's really pushed the boundaries. And then also have this
huge pie that's gonna have dove sway out of it
when you cut into it. Yeah, oh my goodness. You know,
people'll get up to some interesting things. That's like I say,
sometimes they didn't have Netflix, you know, they had to
(33:48):
make their own fun. That's true. There was no Mighty
Ducks for them. Not yet. This has been an interesting
one for sure, another one for the books. M hmmmmm. Um.
And I I apologize to anyone who was really looking
(34:08):
forward to a deep dive into duck biology and mating practices. Um.
I ultimately decided that this is not the show for that. Um. Yes,
we discussed it. We wanted to get into some things,
but we have to make some choices, some tough choices.
(34:29):
Sometimes here those hard, those hard editorial choices. Absolutely, UM
well many many another science show UM has has devoted
time and energy to that. If you care to look
into uh duck mating practices, yes, and as we often
(34:52):
say to the editor of our ads, thank you, and
we're sorry because I don't know if you're going to
be happy if you looked into it, but you might be.
I don't know if I could resist a duck call
like this. A it's it might it might really fit
(35:20):
the bill. Oh pu Scalore. It is early, as we
said everyone, we don't normally record this early. Yeah, yeah,
I think this is the earliest that we've possibly ever recorded. Yes,
it might very well be. So please excuse you know what? No,
(35:41):
thank you and we're sorry and we're sorry. All right,
I think we should call it. I think that's what
we have to say about ducks for now. That that
is what we have to say about ducks. UM. We
do have some listener mail for you. We do, but
first we have one more quick break for a word
from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes,
(36:10):
thank you. We're back with Duck Hunt. Duck Hunt. I
cannot do any anything nearer Donald Duck, and I would
not ask you to try to do it either. Oh,
thank you, thank you. I know I cannot. I cannot
as well. Actually you know I haven't tried. Oh you
(36:33):
know that's true. Right now is not the time? Probably not,
but maybe you know, give it a go later in
report Buck Well we'll do. Okay. So we have two
listener mail males about Bob's Burgers today, and I just
want to thank everyone sincerely who has written in about
Bob's Burgers. It's been a delight you answered the call
(36:58):
when we asked, and just thank you, thank you, thank you.
Um and Swatty, who is one of the people who
early on recommended that we do Bobsburgers, and we've read
a listener mail from Spotty before or so confused about
like oh the Burger episode episode no, not Bob okay, yes,
(37:23):
but Swatty wrote another message about this refreshed my podcast
feed and was so excited to finally see the Bob's
Burgers episode. As stated, it has definitely been long awaited.
So since that was the case, it was an obvious
choice to listen to it absolutely immediately. However, I am
behind on the rest of your episodes, which I have
(37:43):
a totally valid reason for, and the idea of going
out of order makes my body break out in metaphorical hives.
The reason I have been hoarding your episodes for the
past couple of months it's because at the end of
the month, my bank will officially require us to return
to the office full time. This means that I will
have to wake my butt up, take the train, take
the subway, and get to work. Now what am I
(38:06):
supposed to do during my hour and a half commute,
you might ask, Well, the answer is obviously listened to
your podcast. So in anticipation of returning to the office
in my long commute, I have decided to save up
your episodes. Knowing all of this, I braved the metaphorical
hives and proceeded to listen to your Bob's Burgers episode.
It was such a fun episode, and I don't regret
(38:27):
my choice one bit. Yea, we're very happy to hear
when we don't calls regret. Yes, yes, oh heck, that's
always the best. That's always the best. Hives also excellent
good um, Yes, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I hope
that hoarding the episodes improves the commute in some small
(38:49):
podcast way. Absolutely absolutely getting back to the office. Hoof
h good luck we are We are still in grind
in our in our home offices, um, which are varyingly professional?
(39:10):
Are you talking about very professional? With all my costumes
hanging about? Oh yeah, and my cat climbing all over
my laptop all the time. Yeah, super super professional. Um.
Kelsey wrote, I feel in my heart of hearts that
Annie is a Gene and Lauren is a Louise. I
offer no evidence. Please watch the show and draw your
(39:31):
own conclusions. For myself, I wish I were a Louise,
but I solidly aligned with Linda minus the wine. Bob's
Burger's is a balm for the soul, always hilarious and
heartwarming in a delightfully chaotic way. If you have a chance,
I also recommend the Kristin Shawl a voice of Louise
episodes of The Bananas Podcast, especially her first appearance on
(39:53):
the first episode. Yeah. Oh, I don't know if I
got around to mentioning Kristin Shawl and my love for
her in the Bob's Burgers episode. But goodness, my gracious
that that woman is just one of my favorite actors.
I love her. She's fantastic, shadows the TV shows, she's
(40:19):
now like pretty regular characters so out yes, yes, all
of her work. She's brilliant in everything. Um yes. Um. Also,
I am loving that people are writing in and offering
their opinion on who we would be. Um. We're going
to be reading more of those incoming episodes. But I've
got a lot of genes, I gotta say. Um. And
(40:42):
I do love how it's kind of written in the
way like you would do in an alignment and Dungeons
and Dragons aligned with Linda love it yes, um. So
thanks to both of those listenershore writing. If you would
like to write to us, you can our emails hell
Low at favorite pod dot com. We are also on
social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and
(41:05):
Instagram at saver pod and we do hope to hear
from you. Savor is production of I Heart Radio. For
more podcasts from My Heart Radio, you can visit the
I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers
Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way.
Hello, and welcome to Saber production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Rees and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we
have an episode for you about duck. Yes, I love
the word duck. I always wanted to get a pet
and named it whatever animal was. I always wanted to
get a pet, name it duck, but it never happened
for me. I mean, it's a good word. It's got that,
(00:30):
it's got that hard, hard consonant at the end. There,
all right, we can move on. Um. I love duck.
I love duck, but it is hard for me now
not to think of that speech from a Hannibal the
show about cooking duck. And I won't describe it, but
you can imagine what happens in it. Oh, I don't
(00:53):
remember that one, but goodness I I can indeed imagine. Yes,
I mean it was one of those scenes where he
was going into depth of kind of the gruesomeness of
cooking duck and showing graphics of like is this a
human or a duck? That kind of vibe yeah, yeah, yeah,
So that plays in my head when I eat. Yes,
(01:17):
but it also makes me think of Christmas and having
and loving taking duck in China. Um. But I've also
had it an amazing Mexican dishes and French dishes kind
of all over the place. Duck fat fries. Yeah, goodness.
The last time that we bought a whole duck to
cook at home, um, we we rigged up this cold station,
(01:41):
um with a tray of ice and a box fan
to do like a like a rapid dry age, because
what you want to do is you want to dry
down the skin so it will crisp up well when
you when you cook it. Um. And I cannot recommend
trying this at home, but man, it worked, and that
duck delicious and none of us got food poisoning, so
(02:04):
wins all around. I love this, very very creative. No
food forcing is always good. Um. I have never even
attempted to make duck on any occasion anytime, but the
future yeah, he's before me. It's really not difficult. I mean,
(02:25):
you know, like you know, something like like a confee
will will take a little bit of preparation and and
and and elbow grease and actual grease. Um. But but yeah,
just cook it up a duck breast like you can
if if you if you get a good quality one,
you can just cook it like you had a steak,
and like get a nice ear on it, like a
cast iron. Oh it's so good. It does sound good.
(02:47):
Well hard pivot, But I love this fact. I don't know,
it's such a weird thing. But in Luke Skywalker mentioned
duck and what novels say, shil have a new hope,
which is one of those funny things. I think. He
also mentions a dog, and it's one of those things
of like, huh, galaxy far far away duck, okay, um,
(03:11):
that he's never seen one and he wants to see one.
And now it is a running joke in fan fiction
that I adore when Luke finally gets to see a duck,
and usually the duck is not very happy, not as
happy to see Luke. Sure, sure for for for comedy sake. Yeah,
(03:33):
oh dear, I love it. I adore it. Uh yeah.
I have known a number of very cranky ducks in
my life. Um yeah, and I think we're going to
do like a brief you know, cartoon character duck aside,
but they're usually pretty cranky ducks. Yeah. Well, I you know,
(03:53):
we we we've talked about birds in our opinions about
them before on this your opinions, you also have some
bird opinions, They're just not as strong as mine. I
maintained that birds are dinosaurs with wings, and that makes
them terrifying because they want to eat your eyeballs and
(04:15):
they can reach your eyeballs, and I don't I don't
like that. I I understand you. I understand this fear. Um. However, um,
I uh superproducer Andrew loves birds and uh and through
our travels together, I have grown to better appreciate the
(04:39):
beauty of birds. Um M, I'm a little bit less
upset about them than I used to be. But I
will say that part of my part of my reticence
to accept birds into my life, UM, was growing up
in South Florida. There were a whole lot of really
(05:01):
weird looking ducks everywhere everywhere, like living in all of
the canals and ponds that we had around, and um,
just just just big cranky, like black and white modeled
ducks with these with these weird like red wattles and
and just they and they looked they looked like like
(05:23):
walking angry radiation ducks. Like they looked like cancer ducks.
And I was I was like, oh man, they've been
in those canals. I don't know what's in there with them,
like mm hmm, so so this is my and they
would they would chase you, like if you if they
decided that you were somewhere you should not be, they
(05:45):
would chase you off. I mean, yeah, they could be intimidating.
I do love how we're really delving into your psychee
around birds right at the top here. This is an intervention.
(06:06):
I think you're okay, Lauren, thank you. I do. I
do feel like I'm in a safe place now. Good.
That makes me happy to hear um. Well, I mean
you can always just think of that you're ducking. That
you're ducking Lauren. Yeah, yeah, yes, and you can see
(06:27):
our We talked about it briefly in our Turkey episode.
I think so you can go check that out if
you want to learn more about that, you can you can. Yes, yes,
I'm sorry. I look, it's not my fault. Okay, No, no,
(06:48):
it's not your fault. Not your fault. I mean think
about it this way. You are a podcaster now discussing duck.
Who is one in this equation? Maybe it was you? Actually,
I can't. I mean, those those ducks seemed real smug
about it, to be honest. Yeah, now you're talking about
(07:08):
the Mono podcast, so maybe they did win. I don't know.
I don't know. I should get to our question. Yeah,
I'm not sure if this brings us to our question,
but I think it's time. I think it's time. M
duck what is it? Oh? Well? Uh? Ducks are a
(07:33):
type of bird um used culinarily um and also kept
for the eggs that they lay. Ducks can be wild
caught or they can be raised. They like living near
bodies of water. UM. A lot of their natural diet
would come from aquatic life plants and animals, a lot
of invertebrates involved in there um of course, right, yeah,
(07:56):
they can. They can be raised to um in flocks
of various sizes, and ducklings do grow pretty fast. You
can raise up ducks from hatchlings to slaughter weight in
like two to four months, which is about twice as
long as chickens, but but much shorter than you know,
like mammals. UM. Three breeds of ducks are commonly used
for cooking UM. Smaller mild pecan ducks also called long
(08:18):
island ducks UM, and these are a bread variety of
wild mallards. Then you've got the larger gamy muscovi duck,
which is a different species, and then Mullard or Mullard
which is an infertile cross between those first two types
and are are the type grown for Foi gras production,
(08:40):
and all three look and behave a little bit differently.
Wild mallards are migratory. There. Mallards are the ones where
the drakes or males have green feathers on their heads
UM and gray and brown bodies, and the females are
speckled brown. Though any number of varieties have been bred
from wild ballards, um pecan tend to have a creamy
white feathers and the bright orange feet and beaks. Yeah,
(09:03):
Muscobi are the type that I grew up with in
South Florida. UM they're black and white and have these
red wattles in both the males and females. UM. Different
breeds of mallards are used for egg production, and if
ducks are allowed to swim using using their legs, UM
those muscles are more developed than you would usually see
in land based poultry, and if they're allowed to fly,
(09:26):
they'll also develop their breast muscles UM more than you
would see in chickens or turkeys. Duck meat and eggs
and fat are used in all kinds of ways in
different cultures around the world. UM. The flavor of the
meat and fat tends to be stronger than most chicken
you can get. It's a game year and and and
can be richer. The meat tends to be darker than
(09:47):
chicken meat. Depends on the breed in the specific animal
in question, but duck meat tends to range in color
from pink like pork too deep red like beef. It's
still technically classified as a white meat as an as
a poultry. UM, but culinarily it tends to be classified
as a red meat. I don't know. Yeah, I think
(10:08):
I would say red meat, but I also don't know.
It's not my area of expertise. I have no no clout. Yeah,
there's some there's some semantics involved. Uh. Duck can be
roasted or smoked or stewed whole as you would other birds,
or a butcher to separate the breasts and the legs
and thighs. Um. The breasts can be cooked medium rare
(10:29):
right basically just heated through and seared like you would
a steak. The legs and thighs are a little tougher
and tend to be cooked low and slow, braised or
poached as in com feet, which is a dish in
which meat is poached in fat. Uh. Duck meat can
also be made into sausages or cured and dried like
you would pushudo. The bones can be simmered for stock.
The whole animal can be used. Um. Speaking of soup
(10:54):
and stock, I ran across a recipe for duck borshed
while I was doing my reading. It all comes back
to bors I actually have been seeing a lot of
recipes for bores lately too, and I know it's because
I researched it and Google's like here, like how interesting?
All right? Right? Yeah? I was like, oh no, I
(11:16):
don't think. I don't think that's the kind of borsched
I want to make. But I was very fascinated anyway. Um,
But like I said, the whole animal can be used
like the Organs patte and other dishes made from blended
duck liver are considered delicacies. Or the fattened livers can
be used whole um or or sliced and often sliced
and pan fried, as in for gras um. The whole
(11:40):
heads are sometimes pan fried and served as a delicacy.
The gizzard and heart are also eaten. Um. The skin
can be fried up separately for a crunchy garnish or
a snack. The eggs Duck eggs tend to be a
bit larger than chicken eggs, like half again is large,
maybe with a thicker shell and a larger percentage of
yolk versus white, and are therefore a little bit fatty
year and richer tasting. As with any eggs, though the
(12:03):
diet of the bird that you get your eggs from
really determines the flavor and texture and nutritional content. You
can use them pretty much like you with chicken eggs. Um.
Though if you're sebbing them in for chicken eggs and
a baked goods recipe, um, mind that extra yolk content
and probably try to either measure them by volume or
weight to make sure that you've got about the same
amount that the recipe calls for, because chicken eggs are
(12:25):
round about like three table spoons or one and a
half ounces in volume, and duck eggs, yeah, are going
to be a little bit bigger, a little bit bigger,
um duck fat uh can be used as a frying
or sauteing or baking oil, and when it is, it
imparts some of duck's gamy flavor into whatever it is
(12:47):
that you're making. So yeah, it's pretty posh to use
duck fat and otherwise non duck dishes like French fries
or biscuits. If you buy a whole duck, you can
render fat the fat out yourself, or you can find
it butchers or specialty shops aroundline. Oh so tasty, so good,
so good. But speaking of what about the nutrition, Well,
(13:12):
duck is a good source of protein, has a good
smattering of minerals and vitamins peak, and ducks are the
fattiest duck will help fill you up and keep you
going eat a vegetable always. Duck fat does contain less
saturated fats than many other animal fats. Um like, uh,
(13:32):
it's less saturated fat than like butter or pork lard
or something like that, but it is still higher in
saturated fats than most plant based fats like olive oil. Uh.
And I read I read this one paper about it
was like it was like, well, duck is this great
source of protein and these nutrients, but we it's a
(13:54):
little bit expensive, and like, we can't get people who
aren't familiar with it to eat it. So what if
we make like a Surreaemi type product out of duck
and get it to people like that? And I was
fascinated by this, Yeah, because because it's like, I don't know,
(14:15):
it's it's like suggesting that somebody make like a like
a steak or like an ox tail surreem. I was like,
what are you talking about? But but sure, yeah, however,
however you can get good nutrition to people, I'm into. Yes, absolutely, Um,
we do have some numbers for you. The value of
(14:36):
the global industry for duck meat is growing and is
expected to reach eleven point to three billion dollars per
year over the next couple of years. A world production
of ducks nearly doubled in the decade between and two
thousand three. Nanjing, China, where deck is an iconic dish,
is estimated to go through two million ducks a year,
(14:57):
And there's apparently even a saying there without duck, there
is no feast. Yeah, I've read. I've read it was
thirty million. But either way, that's like a lot of ducks.
It is quite a lot of ducks. A number of ducks. Yes. Uh,
speaking of numbers of ducks as often, there was some
one point to four billion Mallard breed ducks being kept
(15:20):
around the world, and about one point one billion, or
eighty nine percent of them being kept in Asia. Um.
Asia supplies over eight of the world duck meat, and
of that some one comes from China. In Europe, meanwhile,
France is by far the biggest producer. And um, I've
(15:41):
read that in the southwestern region of Gascony, ducks out
number people one. Now see that sounds like your hill
on Earth, Lauren. It sounds like a living nightmare for you.
They're everywhere. Just wake up and they're all outside of
(16:02):
your house watching very specific horror. Oh jeez, yeah, oh yeah,
just the season. Oh goodness. Um. Meanwhile, background China and
Southeast Asia. Apparently some ten of the eggs consumed are
(16:26):
duck eggs. Yeah, I believe I got some pluck eggs
in China. Um. I tried to get to the bottom
of a lot of ducks have a lot of offshoots,
which I find interesting culturally speaking. Yeah, yes, so I tried.
I went on like a brief rabbit hole about all
those carvings people have of like Mallard ducks. When did
(16:49):
that become invoked? I didn't really find a good answer.
I also tried to get the bottom of the game
Duck Duck goose, but mostly what I discovered is that
it may have originated in Sweden, and Minnesota is the
only state to play duck duck gray duck, and they
are very proud of it. They do not like you
saying anything to rock story about duck duck gray duck.
(17:12):
I've never heard of this variation. I love it me either. Yeah,
I would love to hear from listeners about this is it.
I assume it's played the same way as duck duck goose. Yes,
And there are a surprising amount of mostly local articles
being like, yes, well you play duck duck gray duck
(17:33):
and we're proud. Great, And usually they went into the history,
but I don't nothing of it stood out, just like, okay,
you decided to go this route. Cool, But again, I
don't want to offend anybody's very proud of it. Yeah, yeah, no,
let us let us know if you have specific experience
(17:56):
with duck duck gray duck. Yes, I do really like it, honestly. Um,
but all right in the meantime, we have a lot
of interesting history to go through. Oh we do. But
first we're going to get into a quick break for
a word from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsoring, Yes,
(18:23):
thank you. Okay. So ducks are thought to have originated
in Asia thousands of years ago. Um, and we're being
kept in southeastern China somewhere between two two. A little
bit arrange, but that's okay. Yeah. Yeah. The first written
records about domesticated duck date back to four one BC,
(18:47):
so I don't know. Um. Other sources argued ducks were
domesticated much earlier, perhaps three thousand years ago in China.
Excavated Chinese pottery from two thousand five b C. Were
decorated with illustrations of ducks and geese, which doesn't necessarily
mean they were domesticated, but good good, yeah, yeah, and
(19:09):
uh and this is where this is the area where
uh mallards and the variety known as pecan came from. Yes, Um,
the ancient Romans and Greeks may have also domesticated ducks,
but it certainly was not the norm. I loved reading
like these old timey sources. I found there were kind
of judgmental, like that weirdo was keeping ducks. Yeah, the
(19:34):
Rumans did keep wild ducks likely to eat um. Ducks
first appeared in the Ancient Roman Record and thirty seven
b C. And then in the first century c E.
An agricultural writer advised on how to care for ducks,
um which he believed. He thought ducks were much more
difficult than something like chickens. So I think that's kind
of White people thought it was weird. They're like, you
could just do this, You could just do chickens. Why
(19:56):
are you messing with these ducks? Yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes. Uh.
Certain species of duck probably originated in the America's Some
historians theorized that indigenous peoples of Central America may have
actually domesticated duck before the Chinese did. Yes, and in fact,
different species of duck might be native to most continents. Yeah, yeah,
(20:17):
most of them. Um. I mean, because mallards are migratory,
they wound up getting around to a lot of different
places and then settling in and uh, you know, self
creating new varieties and then right being domesticated into and
and and further specialized. Uh. Muscovi are thought to be
from the America's though, and yeah are different, a little
(20:38):
bit bigger, a little bit stock here. Yes, yes, the
Chinese started eating roasted and gas duck in the tenth century,
or at least by the tenth century. In twelve seventy five,
roast duck was mentioned in a depiction of life and
Hong Joe Um and vendors would sell rose duck door
to door and it was well known and Nunging the
(20:59):
first capital of the Ming dynasty, so the dish didn't
make its way to Beijing until after fourteen twenty when
the Young the Emperor relocated the capital to Beijing. And
so desired was duck meat that the Chinese went about
domesticating the mallard duck and from that bred a meteor
white feathered duck that yes, they named the picking duck. Um.
(21:20):
This is the duck used for making the world famous
taking duck, which yes, named for the city Um, though
at first it was called jin Ling duck, jin Ling
being an old name for Nanjing. Getting the skin crispy,
like you kind of talked about, Laura, and while keeping
the meat moist was important to the chefs and cooks
(21:41):
perfecting this dish, and there was a lot about how
they went about managing that or trying to succeed in
that regard. Yeah, I read a lot about that and
various other famous duck dishes, and at a certain point
was kind of like, oh, I don't know, we we
have to do another twenty nine episodes. It was they
(22:02):
went into great detail and still do um twenty nine
episodes since about right. So, at this time, in Beijing
people would roast duck on a large metal fork over
a fire, while and Nanjing they would roast several at
a time in an enclosed oven. Sometime during the Ming Dynasty,
which was the thirteen sixties to sixteen forties, a shop
(22:25):
in Beijing became known for its quality of roast duck,
and this duck was cooked in these enclosed ovens. So
in the following centuries, taking duck skywrocketed and popularity, though
it was still fairly relegated to royalty and the wealthy.
(22:45):
During this time, chefs in Beijing pivoted to using standing ovens,
allowing them to cook the ducks to order, one at
a time, and this method is still in use today
and was perhaps perfected due to the preference of roasted
meats within the Imperial Family records indicate that the Qin
Long Emperor eight roast deck eight times within two weeks.
(23:09):
And I calculate that. I was like, I guess that
is a lot. It's not not a lot. But also
I mean, I mean I would do that if I could, right, Yeah, Yeah,
I just thought that was interesting. I mean, I'm sure
like at the time that was like he was like,
oh the extra evagance. Yes, and the time being seventeen
(23:31):
sixty one when that was recorded. One time chicken and
duck seller Yan Kwan Ren is often credited with introducing
roast duck at large to the Beijing public towards the
end of the nineteenth century. You opened a restaurant in
eighteen sixty four, hiring a bunch of former Imperial Palace
chefs on the staff. They're delicious. Roast deck quickly caught
(23:52):
the attention of the well off in the city. And
you can still get picking duck from this restaurant to
this day, or at least that's what a quick Google
search says. It's still but um surviving war, invasion, revolution,
and I guess now a pandemic. Goodness right right. Moving
over to Europe, records show that ducks still wrote nearly
(24:12):
as popular as chickens are geese in tenth century France.
They may not have been domesticated until medieval times. In Europe,
they started appearing in the archaeological record in the sixteenth century,
and the remains increase in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
So fascinating that somebody looked into this, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
(24:35):
and also just right right, the different the different things
that people consider to be like food and not food,
and how it develops over the years. Colonizers in the
trade of enslaved people's introduced more varieties of ducks to
the America's the Caribbean in Africa in the fifteen and
sixteen hundreds. When they first arrived to the America's um,
some people wrote in amazement about the number of ducks
(24:57):
in the sky, like the sky was black with ducks,
or some thing like that, um and of their delicious flavor,
including John Smith and Charles Dickens hand in Glasses seventy
seven book The Art of Cookery Plain and Easy had
several recipes for duck, including um Ala, Bray's Ala mode broiled,
the French way pie, and a few more. I love
(25:18):
that Ducks are featured in many nineteenth century cookbooks, often
has an essential dish at celebratory feast. Most people mark
the beginning of the commercial duck industry in the US
in eighteen seventy three with the arrival of a handful
of taking ducks to New York. I think it was
like fourteen or something, maybe seventeen um. The ducks were
(25:41):
then introduced to the nearby areas, where the population exploded, yes,
so much so that this is why they're sometimes called
Long Island ducks here in in the States, because they
mostly come from Long Island, and there's just apparently has
been historically since then, like all of these hec and ducks.
(26:03):
I love the ducks. They like settled alvill settle down
in Long Island will be our place raising and selling
ducks had and I'm sure still does have frozen cons
around this time. Chickens and turkeys far surpassed duck is
the most popular poultries in the Americas. But on the
other hand, small farmers found success with them. Ducks foraged
(26:26):
and eight different foods and other poultry, which was useful,
and the feathers were useful for things like clothes and pillows.
I okay, I read a story that I had to
include here. It doesn't have that much to do with food. Well, okay, okay,
technically so. In nineteen eleven in Nebraska, a whole gold
rush was caused when a group of hunters were cleaning
(26:49):
the ducks that they had caught and they found gold
nuggets in the ducks gizzards. Oh what And they were like,
there's gold round here. These ducks must have like eaten
it accidentally when they were, you know, picking insects out
of the water. Um. But the source of the gold
was never found. Where did the ducks get that gold?
(27:15):
That sounds like a fairy tale or something. Anyway, this
is a food show again, purportedly, ducks taking us all
kinds of ways. Um. The Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation
Stamp of the US Duck Stamp program, which my dad
was a big fan of. I didn't know about this though,
(27:35):
was signed into law in It is the only conservation revenue.
Stamp profits goes to acquiring and protecting wetlands. Any waterfowl
hunter over the age of sixteen is required to buy them.
The design has chosen through an annual contest. Recently, featured
on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and it was
quite quite quite funny. I can look that up if
(27:58):
you'd like to learn more. The first French recipe for
something resembling duck a laarrange showed up in the nineteen century.
Duck recipes were fairly common throughout much of Europe by
this time, and by the nineteen fifties through the nineteen seventies,
duck a laarrange was a favorite at dinner parties across
the United States. Rare cooked duck, like in the beloved
(28:22):
French dish margarette descannards, didn't appear in the written record
until the nineteen fifties. A French chef named Andre Dagwin
attempted to cook it like a medium rare steak, and
the popular story goes that Dunguin was attempting to change
the narrative around deck, that it was unsafe and less
(28:42):
cooked until well done. So to do this again, As
the legend goes, his less than reputable plan was to
serve blood red duck to patrons under the pretense it
was rare beef. Yeah yeah, indeed it worked, though thanks
(29:04):
to a glowing review of his duck in the New
York Times, sent by American journalist Robert Daily. This review,
in part let to a surge in popularity for duck
cooked that way in the nineteen sixties. Okay, um, and
then this one. This has to be a whole episode
because I just got so lost and confused. But also
(29:26):
presumably in the nineteen sixties, packets of duck sauce started
to become available in the United States. Um, and people
who have looked into this, and people have looked into this, Um,
there's just so much confusion around it. Um because this
sauce somethink originally came from the plum sauce served with
(29:47):
pa King duck. Okay, and from there things just get
really wonky. In the Midwest and some of the Eastern Seaboard,
duck sauce is usually this bright orange, sweet and sour sauce.
In New England it's a chunk sweet brown sauce. Other
parts of the country do not have duck sauce at
all and might not even know what we're talking about. Yeah,
(30:10):
it's got to be a future episode because it's like
my brain was doing that nebula. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I
I currently have packets of the of the orange like
the the like radioactive again orange kind of duck sauce
somewhere in my home. I don't know why I've kept them.
(30:30):
I do not eat them. I know. It's just one
of those things where it's like it just goes into
that drawer that we all have, even if you know
you'll probably never touch it again, just in case, just
in case, you know you might need some duck sauce.
It's true, you might have someone over and they might
(30:51):
be really into it, and then you'll be the coolest
host ever. In the nineteen seventies, Chinese mere Jaw and
Leigh served roast duck to President Nixon and Henry Kissinger,
among other diplomats. The Nintendo game Duck Hunt debuted in
nineteen eighty four. UM and very brief cartoon aside, which,
(31:15):
by the way, I forgot to look into the ugly
duckling at all, but that's the thing that also exists. Um.
Donald Duck first appeared in print in nineteen thirty one,
Daffy Duck in nineteen thirty seven, Ducktails in nineteen eighty seven,
and the new Duck Hill series in seventeen. I'm sure
there are more cartoon ducks. Of note, those were the
(31:36):
ones that came to my mind. I did remember Howard
the Duck as we were talking about Luke thinking about ducks,
and came out in nineteen eighties. Six has been featured
recently in recent Marvel movies. Yes, Yes, absolutely, which has
been an absolute joy for me. Um, I guess I'll
(31:57):
add to that culture. Note there that the Mighty US
film debut in Oh. Yes, I loved that movie when
I was young. Oh yeah, I I I quack quack
quacked at any number of people. Very good about that,
you're right. Oh, and then there's that duck, the duck
(32:20):
tourists bust thing. Oh, there's a lot of a lot
of things about ducks in our culture. Like I said,
this is so fast. Yeah, oh gosh. And we didn't
even look into rubber ducks. Oh we didn't. Oh now
I want to know everything about rubber ducks. Okay, I
can't do it right now, Um. Tree ducan was trademarked
(32:42):
in nine six, and I had forgot if we if
we learned this last time, I forgot that Paul proved
Home trademarked the tur ducan. He was he was the
the Cajun chef. Um he claimed to have invented it.
That is debated. Uh and right right. We talked about
it a bit in our Turkey episode. Although um, as
(33:03):
we mentioned, they're really um turducan is not even peak,
like putting birds inside of other birds when you're serving them.
That that that was like the late seventeen early eight hundreds.
So yeah, people just went wild, oh yeah, oh yeah,
multi birds like no, no, why stop at three? Come on?
(33:26):
Why don't yourself? What are you giving up? Come on,
let's really pushed the boundaries. And then also have this
huge pie that's gonna have dove sway out of it
when you cut into it. Yeah, oh my goodness. You know,
people'll get up to some interesting things. That's like I say,
sometimes they didn't have Netflix, you know, they had to
(33:48):
make their own fun. That's true. There was no Mighty
Ducks for them. Not yet. This has been an interesting
one for sure, another one for the books. M hmmmmm. Um.
And I I apologize to anyone who was really looking
(34:08):
forward to a deep dive into duck biology and mating practices. Um.
I ultimately decided that this is not the show for that. Um. Yes,
we discussed it. We wanted to get into some things,
but we have to make some choices, some tough choices.
(34:29):
Sometimes here those hard, those hard editorial choices. Absolutely, UM
well many many another science show UM has has devoted
time and energy to that. If you care to look
into uh duck mating practices, yes, and as we often
(34:52):
say to the editor of our ads, thank you, and
we're sorry because I don't know if you're going to
be happy if you looked into it, but you might be.
I don't know if I could resist a duck call
like this. A it's it might it might really fit
(35:20):
the bill. Oh pu Scalore. It is early, as we
said everyone, we don't normally record this early. Yeah, yeah,
I think this is the earliest that we've possibly ever recorded. Yes,
it might very well be. So please excuse you know what? No,
(35:41):
thank you and we're sorry and we're sorry. All right,
I think we should call it. I think that's what
we have to say about ducks for now. That that
is what we have to say about ducks. UM. We
do have some listener mail for you. We do, but
first we have one more quick break for a word
from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes,
(36:10):
thank you. We're back with Duck Hunt. Duck Hunt. I
cannot do any anything nearer Donald Duck, and I would
not ask you to try to do it either. Oh,
thank you, thank you. I know I cannot. I cannot
as well. Actually you know I haven't tried. Oh you
(36:33):
know that's true. Right now is not the time? Probably not,
but maybe you know, give it a go later in
report Buck Well we'll do. Okay. So we have two
listener mail males about Bob's Burgers today, and I just
want to thank everyone sincerely who has written in about
Bob's Burgers. It's been a delight you answered the call
(36:58):
when we asked, and just thank you, thank you, thank you.
Um and Swatty, who is one of the people who
early on recommended that we do Bobsburgers, and we've read
a listener mail from Spotty before or so confused about
like oh the Burger episode episode no, not Bob okay, yes,
(37:23):
but Swatty wrote another message about this refreshed my podcast
feed and was so excited to finally see the Bob's
Burgers episode. As stated, it has definitely been long awaited.
So since that was the case, it was an obvious
choice to listen to it absolutely immediately. However, I am
behind on the rest of your episodes, which I have
(37:43):
a totally valid reason for, and the idea of going
out of order makes my body break out in metaphorical hives.
The reason I have been hoarding your episodes for the
past couple of months it's because at the end of
the month, my bank will officially require us to return
to the office full time. This means that I will
have to wake my butt up, take the train, take
the subway, and get to work. Now what am I
(38:06):
supposed to do during my hour and a half commute,
you might ask, Well, the answer is obviously listened to
your podcast. So in anticipation of returning to the office
in my long commute, I have decided to save up
your episodes. Knowing all of this, I braved the metaphorical
hives and proceeded to listen to your Bob's Burgers episode.
It was such a fun episode, and I don't regret
(38:27):
my choice one bit. Yea, we're very happy to hear
when we don't calls regret. Yes, yes, oh heck, that's
always the best. That's always the best. Hives also excellent
good um, Yes, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I hope
that hoarding the episodes improves the commute in some small
(38:49):
podcast way. Absolutely absolutely getting back to the office. Hoof
h good luck we are We are still in grind
in our in our home offices, um, which are varyingly professional?
(39:10):
Are you talking about very professional? With all my costumes
hanging about? Oh yeah, and my cat climbing all over
my laptop all the time. Yeah, super super professional. Um.
Kelsey wrote, I feel in my heart of hearts that
Annie is a Gene and Lauren is a Louise. I
offer no evidence. Please watch the show and draw your
(39:31):
own conclusions. For myself, I wish I were a Louise,
but I solidly aligned with Linda minus the wine. Bob's
Burger's is a balm for the soul, always hilarious and
heartwarming in a delightfully chaotic way. If you have a chance,
I also recommend the Kristin Shawl a voice of Louise
episodes of The Bananas Podcast, especially her first appearance on
(39:53):
the first episode. Yeah. Oh, I don't know if I
got around to mentioning Kristin Shawl and my love for
her in the Bob's Burgers episode. But goodness, my gracious
that that woman is just one of my favorite actors.
I love her. She's fantastic, shadows the TV shows, she's
(40:19):
now like pretty regular characters so out yes, yes, all
of her work. She's brilliant in everything. Um yes. Um. Also,
I am loving that people are writing in and offering
their opinion on who we would be. Um. We're going
to be reading more of those incoming episodes. But I've
got a lot of genes, I gotta say. Um. And
(40:42):
I do love how it's kind of written in the
way like you would do in an alignment and Dungeons
and Dragons aligned with Linda love it yes, um. So
thanks to both of those listenershore writing. If you would
like to write to us, you can our emails hell
Low at favorite pod dot com. We are also on
social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and
(41:05):
Instagram at saver pod and we do hope to hear
from you. Savor is production of I Heart Radio. For
more podcasts from My Heart Radio, you can visit the
I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers
Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way.
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