Take four apples peeled and cored, four onions, four leaves of sage, and four of thyme. Boil them with sufficient water to cover them; when done, pulp them through a sieve, removing the sage and thyme; then add enough pulp of mealy potatoes to cause the stuffing to be sufficiently dry, without sticking to the hand. Add pepper and salt, and stuff the bird.
Ducks.
Truss and stuff them with sage and onions as you would a goose. If they are ducklings, roast them from twenty-five to thirty minutes. Epicures say they like them quite under-done, yet, at the same time, very hot. Full-grown ducks should be roasted an hour, and frequently basted. Serve with them the brown giblet gravy or apple-sauce, or both. Green pease should accompany the dish. Many parboil ducks before roasting or baking them. If there is a suspicion of advanced age, parboil them.
Wild Ducks.
Wild ducks should be cooked rare, with or without stuffing. Baste them a few minutes at first with hot water to which have been added an onion and salt. Then take away the pan, and baste with butter, and a little flour to froth and brown them. The fire should be quite hot, and twenty to twenty-five minutes are considered the outside limit for cooking them. A brown gravy made with the giblets should be served in the bottom of the dish. Serve also a currant-jelly. Garnish the dish with slices of lemons.
Duck and Pease Stewed (Warne).
Remains of cold roast duck, with peel of half a lemon, one quart of green pease, a piece of butter rolled in flour, three-quarters of a pint of gravy, pepper, salt, and cayenne to taste. Cut the duck into joints; season it with a very little Cayenne pepper and salt, and the yellow peel of half a lemon minced fine. Put it into a stew-pan, pour the gravy over, and place the pan over a clear fire to become very hot; but do not let the stew boil.[C] Boil a quart of green young pease; when they are done, drain off the water, add some butter, pepper, and salt. Warm this again over the fire. Pile the pease in the centre of a hot dish; arrange the pieces of duck around them, and serve.
Stewed Duck.
Cut the duck into joints. Put the giblets into a stew-pan, adding water enough to cover them for the purpose of making a gravy. Add two onions, chopped fine, two sprigs of parsley, three cloves, a sage leaf, pepper, and salt. Let the gravy simmer until it is strong enough, then add the pieces of duck. Cover, and let them stew slowly for two hours, adding a little boiling water when necessary. Just before they are done, add a small glassful of port-wine and a few drops of lemon-juice. Put the duck on a warm platter, pour the gravy around, and serve it with little diamonds of fried bread (croûtons) placed around the dish.