Young ducks, 1/2 hour: full sized, from 3/4 to 1 hour.
Obs.—Olive-sauce may be served with roast as well as with stewed ducks.
STEWED DUCK. (ENTRÉE.)
A couple of quite young ducks, or a fine, full-grown, but still tender one, will be required for this dish. Cut either down neatly into joints, and arrange them in a single layer if possible, in a wide stewpan; pour in about three quarters of a pint of strong cold beef stock or gravy; let it be well cleared from scum when it begins to boil, then throw in a little salt, a rather full seasoning of cayenne, and a few thin strips of lemon-rind. Simmer the ducks very softly for three quarters of an hour, or somewhat longer should the joints be large; then stir into the gravy a tablespoonful of the finest rice-flour, mixed with a wineglassful or rather more of port wine, and a dessertspoonful of lemon-juice: in ten minutes after, dish the stew and send it to table instantly.
The ducks may be served with a small portion only of their sauce, and dished in a circle, with green peas à la Française heaped high in the centre: the lemon-rind and port wine should then be altogether omitted, and a small bunch of green onions and parsley, with two or three young carrots, may be stewed down with the birds, or three or four minced eschalots, delicately fried in butter, may be used to flavour the gravy. The turnips au beurre, prepared by the receipt of Chapter [XVII.], may be substituted for the peas; and a well made Espagnole may take the place of beef stock, when a dish of high savour is wished for. A duck is often stewed without being divided into joints. It should then be firmly trussed, half roasted at a quick fire, and laid into the stewpan as it is taken from the spit; or well browned in some French thickening, then half covered with boiling gravy, and turned when partially done: from an hour to an hour and a quarter will stew it well.
TO ROAST PIGEONS.
[In season from March to Michaelmas, and whenever they can be had young.]
Pigeons for roasting.
These, as we have already said, should be dressed while they are very fresh. If extremely young they will be ready in twelve hours for the spit, otherwise in twenty-four. Take off the heads and necks, and cut off the toes at the first joint; draw them carefully, and pour plenty of water through them: wipe them dry, and put into each bird a small bit of butter lightly dipped into a little cayenne (formerly it was rolled in minced parsley, but this is no longer the fashionable mode of preparing them). Truss the wings over the backs, and roast them at a brisk fire, keeping them well and constantly basted with butter. Serve them with brown gravy, and a tureen of parsley and butter. For the second course, dish them upon young water-cresses, as directed for roast fowl aux cressons, page [272]. About twenty minutes will roast them.