To Roast Ducks
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the ducks
Draw the ducks.
Shred one onion and a few sage leaves, then put the shredded onion, sage leaves, pepper, and salt into the ducks.
Spit the ducks and dust them with flour.
Baste the ducks with lard.
Roast
Roast the ducks for about twenty minutes over a very hot fire.
Just before removing them from the spit, dust them with flour and baste them again.
Make the gravy and serve
Prepare a gravy by cooking the gizzards and pinions with a large blade of mace, a few peppercorns, a spoonful of catsup, and a teaspoonful of lemon pickle.
Strain the gravy and pour it over the ducks.
Serve onion sauce in a boat.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Flour (in the method)
- Dusting the skin before roasting and again at the end helps form a light, browned coating.
- Lard (in the method)
- Basting with fat keeps the skin moist and promotes even browning during roasting.
- Onion
- Shredded onion inside the ducks adds aroma and sweetness as the birds roast.
The step that matters
Roasting over a very hot fire. Intense heat is needed to crisp and brown the skin quickly while the fat renders. Too low a heat leaves the skin flabby and greasy, and the flour and lard coating will not brown properly.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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