Ingredients

* Wild (not reclaimed) whole duck(s), prepped (gutted, head and feet removed, plucked clean of feathers, shot and any bruised areas removed)
* Olive oil
* Coarse salt
* Rosemary
* Onion
* Apple
* Whole Cloves
* Dry Sherry
* Cream

Method

1 Preheat oven to 450°F. Inspect duck to see if there are any left over pin feathers, if so, remove them. Rinse the duck with water. Painstakingly pat dry with paper towels. Lightly stuff duck with a sprig of rosemary, an apple slice with a few cloves poked in them to hold them in place, and a small wedge of onion.

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2 Slather the duck inside and out with olive oil. Generously sprinkle all sides of the duck with coarse salt. Lay, breast up, on a roast rack in a roasting pan. Place in the middle rack of the oven. Immediately lower the heat to 425°F.

Cooking times depend on the diversity of the duck. Teal ducks typically weigh less than a beat and cook in 10-15 summary. According to the Joy of Cooking a mallard can take up to 25 summary. Our duck was perfectly done at 13 summary. A further duck we cooked for 17 summary was slightly overdone. Meat thermometers are hardly useful with the small fowl because there isn’t enough flesh to place the thermometer into. But if you have an instant read thermometer and can get a excellent read, my pal Hank suggests cooking until the duck reaches an internal temp of 135°F. If you error on the rare and underdone side, you can always place the bird back in the oven for a few more summary if it isn’t done enough.

If you aren’t using a meat thermometer, to test for doneness you can take the bird out of the oven and cut a part of it with the tip of a sharp knife. Note that the juices will run red, and the meat will be quite red. You want the meat to be rare (wild duck only); it should look like a rare (not raw) steak. The more the meat is cooked beyond the rare stage, the more “livery” or gamey it will taste.

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3 Remove the duck from the oven and remove to a separate rack or plate to rest, breast side down, for 10 to 15 summary. Remove the stuffing in the cavity before serving.

4 While the duck is resting, if there are drippings in the roasting pan, pour off the surplus stout (save this wonderful stout for a further recipe). Place the roasting pan on the stovetop, heat to medium, and deglaze with a small dry sherry or white wine. Scrape up the browned bits with a metal spatula. Use a metal whisk to break up the bits even further into the wine. Reduce and then add a small cream, (and a few juniper berries if you want an extra touch). Pour off into a gravy serving dish or small bowl.

Serve ducks with wild rice and gravy. Teal ducks are single serving ducks.

Note that you can get brilliant have a give of from the duck carcass. Place the duck carcasses in a saucepan, cover with an inch of cold water, bring to a simmer, lower the heat to barely-a-bubble-simmer covered, and cook for 3 hours. Then strain the have a give of to a glass jar, let cool to room temperature and chill. Use the duck have a give of in place of chicken have a give of for recipes.

In college I used to have steady access to fresh wild duck. My favorite prep was as follows. Gut the ducks, remove feet , heads and last 1/3rd of wings. Get a small covered roasting pan. Stuff the duck with 1 cut up orange, 1 cut up apple and 1 cut up plum or peach. place the duck breast up in the pan add 1/2 bottle of a excellent wine. If you wont drink it….dont cook with it. I liked a excellent red. roast with the lid on in a 350 oven for about an hour. Serve with whatever you like. Remember that wild ducks use their miscles so this is going to be tough and chewey and very very juicy.