For some reason, in the modern world, ducklings and goose were unjustly forgotten. Thanks to poultry farms, everyone switched to chicken, and even at the beginning of the last century, the cookbooks of our great-grandmothers were full of various recipes for cooking this bird. Many housewives considered such a product more tasty and fragrant, and, most importantly, diet. There are several secrets to how to roast duck. Responsibly choose a carcass. When buying it on the market, choose one that has smooth, dry skin of a pale yellow color. It should not have a pungent smell. In a good bird, the membranes on the paws should be soft, not coarse.
Before roasting a duck, it needs to be cut. If you want to cook it whole, then you need to remove the lower parts of the legs and head, gut. Some housewives recommend getting rid of excess fat: cut the tail or simply hang the carcass vertically and pour over boiling water. Then you can cut the meat into portions, or you can stuff the bird with a variety of fillings, pickle it or roll in spices. The meat can be stewed in a special bowl - goose bowl - oblong cast-iron cauldron. It can be fried, baked, cooked. In all cases, the dishes are surprisingly tasty.
There are many recipes for how to roast duck. You can cook it in the old Russian way - with apples, or you can choose a complex festive Ukrainian dish - “A bird stuffed with pancakes in Poltava”. Fans of exotic can build a masterpiece, which is included in the treasury of world culinary - "Peking duck." Previously, it was fried in a wood stove, but now you can get by with a simple gas or electric oven.
To begin, consider the classic way how to fry a duck with a whole carcass with some minced meat, for example, apples. To do this, it is better to take acidic varieties, Antonovka, for example - 700 g per bird weighing up to 2 kg. Peel the fruit, remove the seeds, cut into slices. Salted gutted carcass, pepper, put apples inside and sew a hole with a coarse thread. You must take into account that the stuffing during the frying process will increase in volume, so you should not stuff the duck like a subway car during rush hours, otherwise the thread will break. You can choose an unconventional filling: oranges, grapes, stewed cabbage - everything that gives the meat a sour flavor.
Then lay the bird back in a frying pan, add two tablespoons of oil and a spoon of water and put it in the oven for an hour (moreover, the fire should be medium). Occasionally turn the carcass from side to side, pouring it with juice that has melted during the frying process. You can cook the duck in the oven by wrapping it in foil or a culinary sleeve. In this case, the bird must be pre-marinated overnight (we recommend equal parts of soy sauce and honey, a small addition of mustard) or rub with pepper, honey and salt.
There are several tricks to how to cook a wild duck, the smell of which is sharper and the meat is tougher than that of the domestic one. Such a bird is better to cook in portions. You should definitely marinate the meat: this will soften the ducklings and remove the “swamp smell”. It is recommended several minutes before taking the dish out of the oven (when a golden brown crust has already formed), pour it with a glass of red wine, sprinkle with cinnamon and then stew for another five to ten minutes.