1219.—DUCK, ROASTED, WILD. (Fr.—Canard Sauvage Rôti.)
Ingredients.—1 wild duck, a pint of Espagnole sauce, (see Sauces, No. 244), 1 glass of port wine or claret, the juice of a lemon, watercress, salad-oil, salt and pepper.
Method.—Draw and truss the bird, and roast it in front of a clear fire or in a moderate oven for about 45 minutes, basting frequently. Make the sauce as directed, add to it the wine and lemon-juice, season to taste, and keep hot until required. Serve the duck on a hot dish, garnish with watercress, previously well washed, dried and seasoned with pepper and salad-oil, and send the sauce to table in a sauce-boat.
Time.—About 30 minutes. Average Cost, 3s. 6d. to 4s. 6d. Sufficient for 3 or 4 persons. Seasonable from August to March.
Ducks's Eggs.—All ducks are good layers if carefully fed and properly tended. Ducks when in good health usually lay at night or early in the morning, and one of the surest signs of indisposition among birds of this class is their irregularity in laying. The tint of the eggs laid depends chiefly upon the colour of the duck—light-coloured ducks laying white eggs, brown ducks eggs of greenish-blue, and dark-coloured birds producing the largest-sized eggs. When placing the eggs of other birds under a duck to be hatched, care should be taken that the eggs match those of the duck as nearly as possible, otherwise the duck may turn out of the nest and destroy the eggs which differ from her own in size and colour.
Cooping and Feeding Ducklings.—Brood ducks should be cooped at some distance from the other birds. Just outside the coop should be placed a wide and flat dish of water, which must be frequently renewed. Barley or meal should be given to the ducklings as their first food. If the weather be wet the tails of the young birds must be clipped to prevent these draggling and causing weakness. The state of the weather and the strength of the ducklings will determine the period of their confinement to the coop. As a general rule a fortnight is sufficient, and the luxury of a swim may sometimes be permitted them at the end of a week. At first the ducklings should not be allowed to stay too long in the water, for they then will become ill, their feathers get rough, and their stomachs disarranged. In the latter case the birds must be closely cooped up for a few days, and bean-meal or oatmeal be mixed with their usual food.
Fattening Ducks.—Some duck keepers allow their ducks to wander about and pick up food for themselves, and they appear to fatten on this precarious living; but unless ducks are supplied in addition to chance food with a liberal morning and evening meal of corn or grain their flesh will become flabby and insipid. The simplest way to fatten ducks is to allow them to have as much substantial food as they will eat, especially bruised oats and pea-meal. No cramming is required, as they will eat to the verge of suffocation. They should, however, be well supplied with clean water and allowed to have plenty of exercise.
1220.—FOWL, BOILED. (Fr.—Poulet Bouilli.)
Ingredients.—1 fowl, 1½ ozs. of butter, 1½ ozs. of flour, ¾ of a pint of stock, 1 onion, 1 carrot, a bouquet-garni (parsley, thyme, bay-leaf), 6 white peppercorns, salt.
Method.—Truss the fowl for boiling. Have ready a saucepan just large enough to contain the fowl, and as much boiling stock or water as will cover it. Rub the breast of the bird with lemon, wrap it in a buttered paper, put it into the saucepan, bring to the boil,
