Roast Ducks

Ingredients

• ducks
• onions
• sage
• salt
• pepper
• 1 slice butter
• brown gravy

Instructions

1. Carefully clear the skin from the stumps of feathers on the ducks.
2. Take off the heads and necks but leave the feet on.
3. Hold the birds for a few minutes in boiling water to loosen the skin, then peel it off.
4. Wash the inside of the birds by pouring water through them.
5. Wipe the outside with a dry cloth.
6. If desired, prepare a stuffing of parboiled onions mixed with minced sage, salt, pepper, and a slice of butter, and put this into the bodies of the birds.
7. Cut off the pinions at the first joint from the bodies.
8. Truss the feet behind the backs.
9. Spit the birds firmly.
10. Roast them at a brisk fire, but do not place them so close that they scorch.
11. Baste them constantly during roasting.
12. When the breasts are well plumped and the steam from them draws toward the fire, remove them from the spit.
13. Dish quickly and serve with a little good brown gravy poured around them and some gravy in a tureen.