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.
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 cooking soak them all night in salt and water, to draw out
whatever fishy or sedgy taste they may happen to have, and which
may otherwise render them uneatable. Then early in the morning put
them in fresh water (without salt,) changing it several times
before you spit them.
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.