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Orange Stuffing for Duck
3 cups dry bread crumbs 1 cup diced apple 1/2 cup seedless raisins 4 teaspoons sugar 2/3 cup orange juice 1/4 cup melted shortening Salt and pepper Mix ingredients in order given and season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish the duck with parsley and sections of orange, dipped in thick sugar syrup. Serve with the duck an orange sauce, made by adding 1/2 cup drained orange juice to two cups gravy. A whole orange baked in duck and removed when duck is cooked absorbs strong odor and flavors duck as well.
A fruit-and-crumb dressing meant for a roasting duck, with an orange sauce and a garnish built into the same paragraph. The quantities suit one bird of about five pounds.
- Stuffing temperatureDressing packed inside a duck must reach 165F on an instant-read thermometer at the centre, which usually lags well behind the thigh meat. Pack it loosely so heat can move through it, or bake it separately in a covered dish at 350F for about 40 minutes and use the cavity for the whole orange alone.
- Dry bread crumbsIn period usage this is set against 'soft' crumbs and may mean either coarse crumbled stale bread dried out or finely rolled dried crumbs. Three cups of coarse dry crumbs is roughly a third to a half of a one-pound loaf, cut into cubes and left uncovered overnight.
- ShorteningA quarter cup of melted shortening, which in this period would usually mean vegetable shortening or lard. Melted butter or rendered duck fat gives better flavour in the same quantity.
- MoistureTwo thirds of a cup of orange juice over three cups of crumbs makes a fairly dry mix, which is correct here since duck renders a great deal of fat into it. Do not add extra liquid at the outset.
- The whole orange trickThe recipe offers the baked orange in the cavity as a further idea. Prick it well; on a small bird the cavity may not hold both the orange and the full quantity of stuffing, so you may have to choose.
- Orange sauce"Two cups gravy" assumes pan drippings thickened with flour. Skim the fat hard first, or the half cup of juice will simply float.
- Sugar syrup garnishThick syrup here means a boiled sugar-and-water syrup cooked heavier than a plain simple syrup; the recipe gives no proportion or test. The dipped orange sections set to a glossy finish as they cool.
- YieldEnough for a duck of 4 to 5 pounds, serving three or four people.