From Julia · 2022-2023 · Reconstructed
Canard à la Presse (Pressed Duck)
Serve when
Serve the moment the sauce, thickened with the duck's own pressed juices, is spooned over the sliced breast.
In the series
Season 2
- S2E3 · ~00:31:00 Julia turns to her friends at Le Cordon Bleu to help her crack an all-but-impossible recipe: duck pressed for its juices tableside, in the grand Rouennaise style
In the series
Canard à la presse is the dish Julia can't crack alone — a recipe so technical it requires calling in favors from Le Cordon Bleu just to understand the mechanics of it, let alone film it clearly for an American audience trying to follow along at home.
Ingredients
Method
- Roast the duck very rare — about 18 to 20 minutes at 450 F — just enough to crisp the skin while keeping the breast meat deep red.
- Carve off the legs and set aside for another use; remove the breasts and slice them thinly, keeping them warm.
- Working quickly, crush the duck's carcass and remaining trimmings in a duck press (or pass firmly through a fine sieve with a wooden pestle) to extract every drop of the rich juices and blood.
- Simmer the extracted juices with the shallot, wine, and cognac in a wide pan until slightly thickened, whisking in the butter at the end.
- Season with lemon juice and a little salt and pepper, then plate the sliced breast and spoon the sauce over immediately.
Substitutions
- No duck press: this dish genuinely depends on rare, blood-rich duck juices — a home version leans on a well-reduced pan sauce of duck stock, red wine, and cognac instead, which gets close without the specialized equipment or the very rare breast.
- Duck breed: a standard Pekin duck works for the roasting and carving; the deep, blood-dark sauce is the one part of the classic recipe that's hardest to fully reproduce at home.
Beyond the recipe
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