The duck press is something that I've noticed in the store since I began working there over two years ago. However, I never knew what it was, nor did I even think of it as some sort of kitchen tool. It sits up on a shelf, the only of its kind, as if it is merely a decorative knick knack. When I learned that it is for sale, and that it retails for just under $2,000, I was filled with curiosity.
What does it do?? What is it for?? A DUCK press? Do you press the whole duck in there? What do you press? Why does it have duck feet??
Well, the initial explanation I received involved pressing organs to make pate juices and au jus. Duck juice extraction for sauces, essentially.
That was weird, but then I delved further and discovered a classic French dish that goes by a few different names. If you're lucky, you'll get a canard a la presse, or pressed duck. If you're some sort of pagan meat fiend, however, you'll order by another name: either canard a la rouennaise, or canard au sang. Duck in blood sauce, or duck in blood, respectively.
WiseGeek has a pretty good description.
In short, a live duck is strangled (so as to minimise blood loss), partially roasted, and then broken down. Meaty hunks are removed for further roasting, and then the carcass is pressed to extract all sorts of blood and marrow. This extraction is used as the basis for the sauce that is then poured over the roasted meat. Oh yes, all this pressed business is done by the waiter AT YOUR TABLE. So you get to watch (and presumably hear and smell) the duck get crushed, you sick, sick little man.
If you want to view pictures of the process from La Tour d'Argent, a Parisian restaurant that serves the dish for 130 €, head over to fxcuisine.com. But I'm warning you, those pictures are nasty gross.
As a side note, La Tour d'Argent has every reason to be proud of their dish. Canetons à la Rouennaise was on the menu of the "Dinner of the Three Emperors," an eight hour meal that "is reputed to have been the most magnificent ever to have occurred in any restaurant in the world." (yes, I just quoted Wikipedia.) La Tour d'Argent is the restaurant descendant, so to speak, of Café Anglais, where the dinner took place.
Fancy pants aside, I'll never view that duck press the same way again. This, friends, is why I stay away from the savory side of the kitchen.
Maybe if you did a "Pressed Duck Workshop" you could sell a couple of duck presses. I'd love to try pressed duck, though I don't think I'll ever make it to a joint that fancy. It's expensive to do tableside because you need room in the dining room to manouever the cart, so you wind up losing tables and therefore covers.
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