How to Roast Ducks

Katie Seabrook, President McKinley's Colored Cook

Don't wash your ducks, but wipe them thoroughly with a clean cloth, inside and outside. Rub the back (inside and outside) with a small piece of onion. Salt and pepper them the same way. Tie them up tightly so the juice does not escape. Rub the breast of each duck with a spoonful of olive oil. Lay in your dripping-pan a slice or two of bacon, one carrot, one leek, two bay leaves, a piece of celery. Place the ducks on this, and let them cook in a moderate oven twenty-five minutes. Put in any dressing you would make for a roast chicken. With all your roast meats put in the bottom of your roast-pan a carrot cut in half, a piece of onion, celery and parsley. The same with boiled meats or fish, to give a foundation taste to your food.

From page 30 of the 1904 edition.

Original pages from the book