Warning: graphic images of raw meat included 😛

I absolutely love cooking historical recipes. Trying out flavors from the past is revealing and almost always tasty. We often make uninformed assumptions about what historical food was like though. And the sheer variety of what people used to eat can be quite surprising. Take for example, this Guyanese Duck Curry.

During the 18th century, there was trade happening all over the world, and international cuisine reflected this. This dish comes from Guyana, which lies in-between Venezuela and Brazil. Duck curry is immensely popular in Guyana, but this South American country’s food contains influences from several other continents. Elements of duck curry originate in North America, Britain, India, the Netherlands, and Africa.

I got the recipe from A Taste of History: Cookbook. I had no idea, but PBS actually airs a show titled A Taste of History, which has hundreds of episodes about 18th century food. Pretty cool. You can find some recipes on their website, which I’ll link to down below.

This recipe could be made with less time and effort if you used store-bought broth. However, the recipe calls for duck broth, which I have never seen for sale before. As I had all the ingredients for duck broth, I decided to make it. Basically, it’s like making another soup, but with the whole carcass steeping in it.

The first step was to butcher the duck, which I promptly realized I didn’t know how to do. After getting frustrated part way through, I watched a tutorial about butchering a duck – it definitely helped. My tips are: 1. know what you’re doing first, and 2. have a sharp knife!

In the Middle of Butchering
The End Results

Once I finished butchering, it was time to start the broth. Add together with the duck parts onions, carrots, celery, bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns, and water. Make sure you use all the excess duck parts, I neglected to take a photo with all of them in the pot. I boiled all this for a while (and forgot to switch it to a simmer).

While that boiled, I sautéed two onions, garlic, and curry powder. Then I added the now chopped up duck pieces and tomato. Then some of my precious duck broth went into the pan.

  • The Duck Broth
  • Sauté of Onions, Garlic, and Curry Powder
  • Addition of Duck, Tomato, and Broth

After the broth, the recipe calls for garam masala and cumin. Make sure you do this in a pot. Since my pan turned out to be too small for the following ingredients, I ended up transferring everything to a pot. Then I threw in chopped potatoes, carrots, ginger, and thyme. The original recipe called for habanero, but too much spice isn’t popular with my samplers, so I omitted it.

  • Garam Masala
  • Cumin
  • The Curry!

The recipe says to cook the duck for 10 minutes before you add the carrots and potatoes. I would recommend letting it simmer longer, because the potatoes and carrots were very soft by the time the duck was tender. However, the dish was still yummy. It tasted very modern, like something you could get in a restaurant nowadays. To note, duck does taste different than chicken, if inquiring minds want to know.

This recipe is a great example of the extreme variety present in 18th century food! With the spices from India, potatoes and tomatoes from the New World, and more, any presupposition of bland meals primarily of meat and breads is simply blown away. Just like anything, you must delve deeper before you assume it to be one way or another.

I highly encourage everyone to take a stab at recreating their own historical recipe! If you don’t have – or desire to buy – a cookbook, there are plenty of resources online. Colonial Williamsburg, Jas. Townsend and Sons, and many others offer recipes and tutorials on their websites or on YouTube.

Here is the video I watched partway through the process:

How to butcher a duck

Butchering is a great skill to have, since it’s often cheaper to buy the whole animal rather than portions. Have a go at buying a whole duck and using it in …

A Taste Of History | Winner of Ten Emmy® Awards!

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