After the ducks are drawn, wipe out the inside with a clean cloth,
and prepare your stuffing. Mince very fine some green sage leaves,
and twice their quantity of onion, (which should first be parboiled,)
and add a little butter, and a seasoning of pepper and salt. Mix the
whole very well, and fill the crops and bodies of the ducks with it,
leaving a little space for the stuffing to swell. Reserve the livers,
gizzards, and hearts to put in the gravy. Tie the bodies of the ducks
firmly round with strings, (which should be wetted or buttered to keep
them from burning,) and put them on the spit before a clear brisk fire.
Baste them first with a little salt and water, and then with their
own gravy, dredging them lightly with flour at the last. They will be
done in about an hour. After boiling the livers, gizzards and hearts,
chop them, and put them into the gravy; having first skimmed it, and
thickened it with a little browned flour.
Send to table with the ducks a small tureen of onion-sauce with chopped
sage leaves in it. Accompany them also with stewed cranberries and
green peas, if in season.
Canvas-back ducks are roasted in the same manner, omitting the
stuffing. They will generally be done enough in three quarters of
an hour. Send currant jelly to table with them, and have heaters to
place under the plates. Add to the gravy a little cayenne, and a large
wine-glass of claret or port.
Other wild ducks and teal may be roasted in about half an hour. Before
roasting, parboil them with a large carrot inside their bodies. This
will draw all the fishy or sedgy taste that may be about the ducks.
Then throw away the carrot, and lay them in fresh water.
You may serve up with wild ducks, &c. orange-sauce, which is made by
boiling in a little water two large sweet oranges cut into slices,
having first removed the rind. When the pulp is all dissolved, strain
and press it through a sieve, and add to it the juice of two more
oranges, and a little sugar. Send it to table either warm or cold.