DUCK, to Ragoût a whole.
Ingredients.—1 large duck, pepper and salt to taste, good beef gravy, 2 onions sliced, 4 sage-leaves, a few leaves of lemon thyme, thickening of butter and flour. Mode.—After having emptied and singed the duck, season it inside with pepper and salt, and truss it. Roast it before a clear fire for about 20 minutes, and let it acquire a nice brown colour. Put it into a stewpan with sufficient well-seasoned beef gravy to cover it; slice and fry the onions, and add these, with the sage-leaves and lemon thyme, both of which should be finely minced, to the stock. Simmer gently until the duck is tender; strain, skim, and thicken the gravy with a little butter and flour; boil it up, pour over the duck, and serve. When in season, about 1½ pint of young green peas, boiled separately, and put in the ragoût, very much improve this dish. Time.—20 minutes to roast the duck; 20 minutes to stew it. Average cost, from 2s. 3d. to 2s. 6d. each. Sufficient for 4 or 5 persons. Seasonable from November to February; ducklings from April to August.