Directions: |
Directions:Carefully rinse the duck inside and out and feel around inside to make sure the hunters cleaned it well. Then look for any remaining pin feathers and for places where it might have been shot. When you find those places, try to dig around with a little tweezer under the skin and into the meat to look for shot and little tiny clumps of feathers that get pushed in by the shot. If you are very lucky, the duck was hit in the head or near the wing but that mostly happened when dad was still hunting. Slice 3-4 cups of onion and brown them slowly in vegetable oil and butter in a dutch oven (Mom used Crisco shortening and butter) Remove the onions and set aside in a bowl. Dry the duck and salt and pepper the interior and add a half of apple, a wedge of onion and a piece of celery.
Put 1/2 cup flour and some salt and pepper in a brown paper bag and add the duck and shake it up well until the duck is coated. Brown the duck thoroughly until very well browned in the onion pan adding more shortening/butter if necessary. This is very messy and a bit smoky because of all the fat on the duck. When the duck is fully browned, set it aside, pour off the excess fat and then deglaze the pan with 2 cups of dry red wine..as Julia Child said, don't use a wine that you wouldn't drink! Add the duck and the onions and bring the casserole to a simmer. Cook it in a 325º oven or on top of the stove for an hour and a half, checking the liquid periodically, adding more wine as necessary. The flour on the duck will help thicken the sauce slightly. |
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Notes: |
Personal
Notes: Hopefully it is a young duck and will therefore be very tender, if it is an older duck it might be a little tougher since all the fat on the duck is under the skin and the meat itself is pretty lean. Slice the breast meat and carve off the leg thighs (hard to tell where the thigh starts on these little guys), they have about 3 bites of very delicious meat on each of them. Serve with wild rice and wine sauce and a sturdy green veggie or spinach salad. Watch out for the shot that you probably missed. One of these little ducks doesn't really serve more than 2 people. Enjoy, Nona
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