How To Roast Ducks

Prepare them by singeing, washing and drawing the same as chickens; put the giblets in a stew-pan with pepper and salt, an onion cut in two, and cold water to cover them, and let them stew gently for several hours for the gravy; prepare a filling of bread-crumbs, about a quart for two ducks, add pepper and salt to your taste, a large onion chopped very fine, a tablespoonful of sage dried and rubbed fine, a teaspoonful of sweet marjoram the same; a piece of butter the size of an egg melted and poured over; mix all well together, fill the ducks, truss them, season with pepper and salt, and dust with flour, and roast them if small an hour, longer if larger; baste them frequently, make the gravy of the giblets the same as for roast chickens, and serve with currant jelly or cranberry sauce.

Canvas-Back Ducks

After being well washed, roast them twenty minutes, serve them whole, carve them at the table, lay them in a chafing-dish, with cayenne pepper, salt, a large piece of butter, half a tumbler of currant-jelly, and as much Madeira winej simmer a few minutes and serve.

Stewed Ducks

Prepare and divide the ducks as you would chickens for a fricasee, season with pepper and salt, and lay them in a frying-pan with water to cover them; simmer them slowly for about an hour. When tender, put in with them a quarter of a pound of butter, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, and a small onion chopped fine; simmer until the water is gone and they begin to brown, then add a tablespoonful of browned flour mixed to a smooth paste with cold water; boil up once and serve.

How To Warm Cold Duck

Cut up the duck and put it in a stew-pan with remains of eold gravy or broth; if not enough to cover, add water; rub to a paste two ounces of butter and a tablespoonful of browned flour, stir it in, and add a wine-glass of mushroom or tomato catsup, a little chopped parsley, a small onion chopped, and pepper and salt to taste; stew fifteen minutes and serve.

Roast Goose

Singe and wash the goose, draw it, and put the giblets on the fire in a stew-pan, with pepper, salt and an onion cut in half; simmer for several hours for the gravy; prepare a filling of bread crumbs, seasoned with pepper and salt, an onion chopped, two teaspoonsful of sage leaves dried and rubbed fine, and the same of sweet majoram, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, and butter the size of an egg melted and poured over; fill the bird, truss it, season and roast the same as turkey; make a gravy of the broth with the gizzard chopped and the liver rubbed fine with a little butter, thicken with browned flour, give a boil up, put a few spoonsful over the goose, the remainder in a gravy-boat; serve with a brown onion-sauce or apple-sauce. If you prefer a potato stuffing, boil six or eight potatoes, peel them, chop and season the same as above.

How To Dress Cold Goose

Cut the meat from the bones, season with pepper and salt; cut two onions up and put them in a frying-pan with an ounce of butter, fry until the onions are brown and tender; add a table-spoonful of browned flour, a wine-glass of tomato catsup and a teacup of broth, if you have no gravy left; if you have the latter, add water enough to make a cupful; put in the goose, simmer for fifteen minutes and serve. You may add a glass of wine and the juice of a lemon, if you want it more piquant.

Canvas-Back Ducks

Singe, and draw them and wash very clean, rinse out the inside with warm water in which you have dissolved a small piece of soda; then rinse again in clear cold water. Prepare a filling of a pint of grated and sifted bread crumbs, season with pepper and salt, a small onion chopped very fine, a little chopped parsley and a piece of butter the size of a large egg melted and poured over; mix all well together with a knife, divide it into two equal parts, and put a portion in each duck; truss them, secure the legs and wings with skewers, season them outside with pepper and salt, and dust a little flour over them; put them in a pan and roast them in a quick oven about three-quarters of an hour; if the ducks are very fat, put a little water in the pan with them, and baste them with, their own drippings; if they are not fat, baste them with butter and hot water stirred together. When the ducks are done and taken out of the pan, if there is much fat pour it off, and add to the gravy half a teacup of currant jelly and the same of Port wine, give a boil up and serve in a sauce-boat. Any other wild ducks are cooked in the same manner.

Prepare and season a wild turkey in the same way, excepting that you make a gravy of the giblets as in roast chickens, and leave out the wine and jelly.

Wild Ducks Stewed

Draw and singe them and wash very clean, and divide them as you would chicken for a fricassee, season each piece with pepper and salt and dust with flour; melt in a frying-pan a quarter of a pound of butter; when hot, lay in the pieces of duck, fry a nice brown; put the giblets in with the ducks, then cover with hot water and stew until tender, letting the water cook almost dry at the last; add half a teacup of currant jelly, the same of Port wine; boil three minutes, and serve with the gravy over them; thicken with a teaspoon of browned flour.