Canard à la Rouennaise

To cooks, ‘rouennaise duck’ means a bird that has been dispatched by smothering so that its blood does not escape, but gives richness and flavour to the meat. The custom began with ducks reared in the Seine Valley, where, tethered to apple trees, they thrived in the mild climate. In the 19th century, a clever restaurateur, Père Mechenet, invented (or rather revived) the duck press for his ‘canard à la rouennaise’. To make it, the bird is quickly roasted, then the legs are r