Cookery Corner

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 124, 11 May 1935, Page 12

Cookery Corner

PREPARING AND COOKING WILD DUCK

A mistake frequently made by the amateur is the dressing of wild duck too soou after it has been shot. Of

course, there are many of us whoso palates arc not sufficiently seasoued to appreciate game which has been hung overlong. At the same time, one can err to tne other extreme, and by dressing and cooking the duck immediately on receipt of it, can thus rob it of much of its flavour. If the weather be cold, the duck will bo all the better for being kept several days. The oven in which duck, and indeed any game or poultry is put, should be very hot, and the heat afterwards reduced. When roasting all small birds there is the ever-present danger of the legs browning too much or becoming 100 hard to bo eaten. To avoid this, take strips of cloth, dip them in a little melted lard and wind them round the legs, liemove the cloth just in time to let the legs brown delicately. This may seem, to some cooks, the making of extra work for themselves, but it is really well worth while'. Roast Wild Duck.

After preparing and stuffing the ducks sprinkle them with pepper and

salt and flour well. Place in a covered meat dish with sufficient good dripping and place in a hot oven and roast for two hours or a little longer if the ducks arc large. If tb/s dish is uncovered they must be basted at intervals to keep them from drying. A covered dish ensures that the aroma and essences will be retained by absorption while confined. Stuffing for Roast Duck. Cut the crusts from a stale loaf and rub it into crumbs. Rub in three tablespoonfuls of good dripping, and add c-ne onion chopped small, pepper, salt, thyme and sage to taste and bin-1 with an egg. Served With Wild Duck. Various condiments and sauces may be served with wild duck. Tho most favoured of these is red currant jelly, though apple sauce holds its own in many households. Orange salad, too, is own eaten with cold roast duck. If, however, you should care to try an unusual sauce, the following is r-oiii-mended: Sauce for Wild Duck. I’ut into a small saucepan a tablespoonful of Worcestershire sauce aim a tablospoonful of mushroom catsup. Add a little salt and pepper, and the juice of half a lemon. Mix well, make the sauce hot, remove from the lire, and stir in a teaspoonful of made mustard. Pour into a hot gravy boat. Duck Pie. Cut the duck up into neat pieces and put it in a saucepan with a little water. Skim off any scum that rises. Then udd salt raid pepper, a tablespoon

of minced parsley, one onion chopped llnelv and three whole cloves. Cut ti" a little pickled pork into dice, and add to the pan, taking care that there is still sufficient water to cover the duck. Thicken the liquid with a little browned flour, let it boil up. and stir in n piece of butler the size of an egg. Have ready half a pint of potatoes cut into dice. Make a good crust, and line the sides of a buttered pie dish with the paste. Lay in some pieces of duck, then some potato dice, then duck and so on. Pour the gravy over, cover with a top crust, make a Blit in the middle and bake. Salmi of Duck. Any remains of roasted game may be used in this dish, but when a superlative salmi is desired the birds should be scarcely more than half roasted. In cither case carve them neatly, and strip every particle of skin and fat from the legs, wings, and breasts. Bruise the bodies well and put them wi|h the skin and other trimmings int i a stew-pan. Then add to them two sliced onions, a bay-loaf, a small blade of mace, and a few peppercorns; pour in a pint or more of good veal gravy or broth, and boil it briskly until it is

considerably reduced. Strain the gravy, pressing the bones well, in order to obtain all the flavour. Skitn off the fat, add a little cayenne and lemon juice, heat the game yery gradually in it, but do not on any account allow to boil. Place pieces of fried bread round the dish, arrange the pieces of due', in the middle, and pour the sauce over it. Stewed Duck. Prepare the ducks by cutting Hen up, in the same way as’for chicken fricasee. Lay two or three very thin slices of pickled pork on th# bottom of a stew pan and place the pieces of duck on the pork. Let them stew slowly for an hour, closely covered. Then'add seasoning of salt and pepper, half a teaspoonful of powdered sage, and one small chopped onion. Stew another half hour or until the duck is tender. Stir up a large tablespoonf 1 of brown flour in a little water arc! add to the stew. 801 l up nod ?"••• tho gravy over tho duck. Braised Wild Duck. Prepare a brace of duck the s.->m-as for roasting, and place them in a stewpqp tqgether with two or three slices of bacon, a carrot, an onion stuck with two cloves and a little thyme and parsley. Season with pepper, and cover the whole with a ven! broth into which has been put a squeeze of lemon juice. Place the pan over gentle heat, and allow the ducks to simmer until done, basting them frequently. When cnolced remove them from the pan and place them where they will keep hot. Remove the fat and thicken the gravy and after dishin- up the dTicks pour it over them