Ducks and ducklings, tame and wild, are prepared alike. To be good, a duck must be fat, be it a canvas-back, gadwell, black-duck, garganey, poachard, wood-duck, pintail, shoveller, spirit-duck, suminer-duck, teal, widgeon, thelldrake, or any other.

How To Select

A young duck has the lower part of the legs soft, and the skin between the claws soft also; you will also know if it is young by taking hold of it by the bill (the under bill only), if it breaks or bends, the duck is young.

If the breast of the duck is hard and thick, it is fresh enough.

How To Prepare

A duck is cleaned and prepared as directed for poultry.

Roasted

Clean, prepare, and truss the duck as a chicken, with the exception that the rump is pushed inside; the duck being much longer than a chicken, it is more sightly when so trussed.

Place inside of the duck two sage-leaves, two bay-leaves, and two sprigs of thyme, and leave it thus in a cool place for two or three hours, and then roast it as directed for chicken.

When roasted, serve it with any of the following garnitures : cabbage, cauliflower, Maeedoine, onion, or truffles.

The fatty part of the gravy or drippings must be carefully and totally removed before turning it over the duck and garniture. It takes from thirty to forty minutes to roast.

Baked

When cleaned, prepared, and trussed as directed for turkeys and chickens, put the duck in a bake-pan, salt and pepper it, cover the bottom of the pan with cold water, and place it in a rather quick oven.

A duck, being generally very fat, requires to be turned over and over several times and to be basted very often. It is not necessary to cover it with buttered paper. In case there is much fat in the pan, remove it while it is cooking.

It is served as directed for roast duck, with garnitures.

When roasted or baked, it is also served with apple or cranberry-sauce, or with currant-jelly. 12

With Peas

Cut in dice about one ounce of salt pork and put it in a saucepan ; set it on the fire, and, as soon as the butter is melted, brown in it a duck trussed as directed and take from the fire. Put one ounce of butter in a saucepan and mix it cold with a tablespoonful of flour, set it on the fire, and, when the butter is melted, put the duck in with about a quart of green peas, blanched for one or two minutes only; add about a pint of water or of broth, a bunch of seasonings composed of three or four stalks of parsley, one of thyme, a bay-leaf, and one clove, salt, and pepper; boil gently till the whole is cooked, and serve warm.

Remove all the fat carefully before serving.

If the water should boil away while it is cooking, add a little more.

With Oranges

Roast or bake a young duck as directed, and serve it with carpels of orange all around; and sprinkle some orange-juice all over just before serving it.

With Olives

Roast or bake the duck as directed. When done, turn the gravy into a small saucepan with about two dozen olives; stir gently, and keep on the fire for about five minutes. Dish the duck, place the olives all around; turn the gravy over the whole, and serve warm.