Caneton Farci à la Rouennaise

Caneton Farci à la Rouennaise teaches a hard, useful truth: a bird is not always cooked to one doneness. The breast must leave the fierce heat rosy and succulent, the legs need a second grilling, the liver forcemeat must be hot through, and the sauce waits for the last dark juices from the carcass. Try to finish all four in the roasting pan and you lose the dish before carving begins.

The original assumed a saucier with Sauce Rouennaise at hand, stock never off the fire, a fierce hearth, a salamander, a duck press, and extra hands to carve while everything stayed hot. Here, one young duckling feeds four. A fully heated oven replaces the hearth, the broiler replaces the salamander, and a sturdy colander, shears, and a heavy saucepan replace the press. The separate carver and tableside performance are brigade scaffolding and can go. The liver stuffing, brief roast, grilled legs, and pressed carcass juices must stay, because they are the dish. One cook, one stove, one evening.

When it lands correctly, you have burnished skin, rosy slices, crisp-edged legs, soft liver forcemeat, and a dark Sauce Rouennaise sharpened with Cognac and a few drops of lemon. Work by temperature rather than bravado, and remove the forcemeat to finish separately if it lags behind. The fierce, brief roast is the step that decides everything; read the thermometer early, then move briskly once the bird leaves the oven.