To Salt and Poach Duck Breasts

This is a Welsh recipe that comes from The First Principles of Good Cookery by Lady Llanover, first published in 1867. It is a curious book, written in the person of a hermit passing on the principles of good cookery to the traveller, and covering such diverse matters as the management of hedgerows, the rearing of goats and beekeeping, as well as the art or science of making soup and how to ‘potch a dish of eggs for a weak stomach’.