Shooting season:
Inland, 1 September — 31 January
Foreshore, 1 September — 20 February
Mallard, wigeon and teal are the species most likely to feature in the fowler’s bag.
The drake mallard has a glossy green head, white neck ring and purple-brown chest. The rest of the plumage is mainly grey with a curly black tail. The duck has a speckled brown plumage. Both sexes have a purple speculum bordered with white, and bright orange legs. Like the pheasant, the mallard is surely familiar to everyone who has ever glanced at the village pond.
The cock wigeon is a medium-sized migratory duck with a rich chestnut head, grey finely striped back and flanks, a pink breast and white belly. The cock’s white shoulder patches are clearly seen in flight. The hen is a duller, mottled brown with a white belly. Both sexes have pointed tails and a green speculum.
Mallard
The teal is the smallest duck in the British Isles. The cock has a russet head with a cream stripe above the eye, grey finely striped back and flanks and speckled cream breast. The speculum of both sexes is green and black with a white border; otherwise the hen is a dull mottled brown. Both cock and hen have grey legs. These duck are to be found everywhere in the United Kingdom on rivers, lakes, ponds and marshes, and along the tidelines of muddy estuaries.
Wigeon
Teal
There are several species of wild duck but the mallard is the largest, probably the best known, and most frequently eaten. Then there are the smaller duck: wigeon, pintail, gadwall, shoveler, tufted, pochard and golden eye. Of these, the wigeon is most commonly eaten. The smallest and often the most highly acclaimed of the wild duck is the little teal which has a place of honour in the wildfowler’s bag.
There is no doubt that the flavour of all duck is affected by their diet. Mallard feed on insects, earth-worms, potatoes, acorns and grain. Wigeon are grazing duck and feed mainly on a variety of grasses. Generally speaking, ducks which have been feeding on inland fields rather than coastal marshes are less strongly flavoured. Young September mallard fattened on grain from the stubble fields taste excellent and are best plainly roasted and served with an apple or orange sauce, sage and onion, or apricot and walnut stuffing.
One mallard will serve two people generously, but a wigeon is barely enough for two. Teal is the best flavoured of all the duck and just right for one person so it has the advantage that it may be cooked exactly to individual taste.
Wild duck do not need hanging as the fatty flesh tends to deteriorate rather than improve. There is no need to pluck the wings as there is so little meat on them. The flesh does not tear, but it may be necessary to remove any remaining down by rubbing the ball of the thumb over the skin. The skin crisps beautifully when roasted.
If you intend to use the duck in a casserole or pie, it is simpler to skin the bird, or just pluck the breast and legs and cut away the meat, discarding the rest of the carcass.
Many cookery books claim that wildfowl have little natural fat compared with the domestic duck and therefore need to be basted frequently to prevent the flesh from becoming dry. In fact, most duck, especially later in the season, have plenty of natural oily fat and are best roasted on a trivet, so that excess fat which has drained off during cooking may be poured off. This is especially important if wine, cider, fruit or vegetables are to be added during the cooking time. Drain off excess fat before adding the extra ingredients.
Duck is also good eaten cold, either carved thinly and served with beetroot, tomatoes or an orange salad, or the meat may be finely shredded and mixed with a light salad dressing and a variety of vegetables, fruit and nuts, with rice or pasta.
Duck may be successfully frozen, but for a shorter time than most other game: up to three months is ideal.
Mallard is sometimes available from larger supermarkets from mid-September to late January.
Wild duck is best plainly roasted, but you may place a piece of orange, onion, apple or sage leaves inside the body cavity to add extra flavour. Remove these before carving the birds. Sage and onion, or apricot, walnut and orange stuffing (see Good Companions) may also be served as an accompaniment. Many recipes for roasting wild duck suggest that they should be served slightly underdone to preserve the flavour. My family and I beg to differ and prefer them to be well done. This is, of course, a matter of individual taste, so if you prefer duck served rare, then reduce the recommended cooking time by about 20 minutes.
Brace of mallard or 3 wigeon
Optional: apple, orange, onion or sage
Salt
Watercress or sprigs of sage to garnish
Stuff the body cavities with pieces of either apple, orange, onion or sage. Rub a little salt into the skin and place the duck breast down on a trivet in a roasting tin. Roast in a hot oven, 220°C (425°F), gas mark 7, allowing 11⁄2 hours for mallard and 1 hour for wigeon. Turn the duck breast side up for the final 15 minutes of the cooking time to brown and crisp the skin.
If you wish to serve a stuffing with the duck, this may either be shaped into balls and placed around the duck on the trivet, or cooked separately on a greased baking sheet.
When cooked, keep the duck hot on a carving dish, remove the trivet and spoon off the excess fat.
Make a thin brown gravy from the pan juices.
Garnish the ducks with watercress or sage, and the stuffing if used, and serve the gravy separately.
One of the culinary delights of early September is a brace of roast mallard which have been feeding on laid corn or stubble. These may be plainly roasted as in the previous recipe or, for a change, glazed with honey and served with a thin sauce made from orange juice and red wine.
Brace of September mallard
2tbsp clear honey
300ml (1⁄2pt) unsweetened pure orange juice
1 glass red wine
1tbsp cornflour
2 oranges
Salt and pepper
Watercress
Peel the oranges very thinly, using a potato peeler or sharp knife, and place the peel inside the body cavities of the mallard.
Place on a trivet in a roasting tin. Spread the honey over the breasts and legs, cover with foil and roast in a hot oven, 220°C (425°F), gas mark 7, for 11⁄2 hours. Remove the foil for the final 15 minutes to allow the skin to become crisp and brown.
Remove the birds from the tin and keep hot on a serving dish. Remove the trivet and spoon off the excess fat from the tin.
Blend the cornflour with a little of the orange juice. Add the wine, the rest of the juice and the blended cornflour to the pan and bring to the boil, stirring all the time. Add a little salt and pepper to taste and pour into a sauce-boat.
Remove the pith from the oranges and cut into rings. Garnish the duck with the orange slices and watercress.
Serve with new potatoes, dwarf beans and the orange sauce.
Teal have a flavour too delicate to be masked by anything stronger than a little butter. The beauty of the teal is that as it is a perfect size for one person it may be cooked exactly to individual taste. This may be for as short a time as 20 minutes or as long as 40 minutes.
1 teal
Melted butter
Parsley and slices of lemon to garnish
Brush the teal with the melted butter and place in a small roasting tin or shallow casserole. Cook in a hot oven, 220°C (425°F), gas mark 7, for 20-40 minutes according to taste.
Spoon the cooking juices over the bird and serve very hot garnished with parsley and slices of lemon.
This is another recipe ideal for September mallard and suitable for a special occasion. The traditional Normandy products of apples, crème fraîche and Calvados are used to make the sauce. Crème fraîche has a creamy consistency similar to natural yoghurt. It has the advantage of being lower in calories than cream, and yet has a softer and more delicate flavour than yoghurt.
Brace of September mallard
350g (12oz) dessert apples, peeled, cored and sliced
2-3 cloves
225g (8oz) crème fraîche
2tbsp Calvados
2tsp lemon juice
Watercress to garnish
Place the mallard breast down on a trivet in a roasting tin and cook for 11⁄2 hours at 220°C (425°F), gas mark 7. Turn the birds over for the final 15 minutes to brown and crisp the skin.
To make the sauce, place the apples in a saucepan with a little water, cloves and lemon juice. Cook gently until soft, then liquidise or rub through a sieve.
Return the apple purée to the pan, add the Calvados and crème fraîche and heat through, stirring continuously. Do not allow the sauce to boil.
Carve the duck onto a warm serving dish, pour over the sauce and decorate with watercress. Bon appétit!
This tangy pineapple sauce goes well with the rich flavour of wild duck.
Brace of wild duck
8 pineapple slices canned in syrup
2tbsp white wine vinegar
1tbsp soy sauce
1 level tbsp cornflour
Roast the duck breast down on a trivet in a roasting tin in a hot oven, 220°C (425°F), gas mark 7, for 45 minutes.
Pour off any excess fat, remove the trivet and turn the duck breast side up. Drain the syrup from the canned pineapple rings and pour over the ducks. Return to the oven and cook for another 30-45 minutes. When cooked, place the duck on a carving dish and keep hot.
Blend the cornflour with the wine vinegar and soy sauce, then add to the cooking juices and stir over a gentle heat until it thickens and comes to the boil. Add a little salt if necessary.
Decorate the duck with the pineapple rings and spoon over a little of the sauce. Serve the rest separately.
This recipe uses the skinned legs and breast meat only. There is very little flesh on the rest of a duck, so it is ideal if you have limited time in which to prepare a meal for the family. If the duck has plenty of subcutaneous fat, this can easily be removed with the skin.
Brace of wild duck
150ml (1⁄4pt) orange juice
150ml (1⁄4pt) red wine or stock
Thinly pared rind and juice of
1 orange
3 cloves
1tbsp flour
Bay leaf
Salt and pepper
Pluck the feathers from the legs and breast area of the duck. Cut off the large piece of meat either side of the breastbone, peel off the skin and fat and slice the meat thinly. Cut off the legs and skin them.
Place the flour in a saucepan, gradually blend in the orange juice and wine or stock and bring to the boil, stirring all the time.
Add the cloves, bay leaf, juice and thinly pared rind of the orange, salt and pepper, and finally the duck meat. Cover and simmer for about 11⁄2 hours or until tender.
Serve with creamed potatoes and a green vegetable.
Wild Duck with Cider
Early in the season, wild duck which have been feeding inland are usually lean and sweet tasting as they have not yet built up a surplus store of fat for the winter months. In this condition they are suitable for casseroling as an alternative to roasting. This recipe uses a dry cider together with tomatoes and young carrots which are usually still plentiful at this time of year.
2 lean wild duck
450g (1lb) tomatoes
450g (1lb) carrots
2tsp fresh or 1tsp dried sage
600ml (1pt) dry cider
Salt and pepper
Pour boiling water over the tomatoes. Allow to cool and remove the skins. Chop the tomatoes roughly. Scrape and slice the carrots.
Place the vegetables in a large casserole, add the sage, salt and pepper.
Place the duck on the bed of vegetables and pour over the cider. Cook in a moderate oven, 180°C (350°F), gas mark 4, for 11⁄2 hours.
Remove the duck from the casserole and cut the meat from the carcasses, leaving the legs whole. Put the meat back into the casserole and return to the oven for a further 15 minutes.
Serve with small new potatoes baked in their skins.
Duck is equally good eaten cold and can be served with a variety of salads. If you are roasting duck for Sunday lunch, it is a good idea to cook an extra bird or two to serve cold the next day. Normally, a mallard will serve two people but, by finely shredding the meat and mixing it with other ingredients, it should stretch to four. Two cold wigeon will feed four people rather more generously.
Red and green peppers add colour to this salad and are cheap to buy in early autumn. Use wholewheat or verdi tagliatelle or ribbon pasta to add either extra fibre or colour. This salad is a complete meal and may be packed in individual containers for a picnic lunch.
Finely shredded meat from 1 mallard or 2 wigeon
1 large red pepper, deseeded and chopped
1 large green pepper, deseeded and chopped
225g (8oz) mushrooms, sliced
350g (12oz) cooked pasta
6-8tbsp French dressing
Parmesan cheese
Chopped parsley to garnish
Toss the cooked pasta in half of the French dressing. Mix the meat, chopped peppers and sliced mushrooms in the remainder of the dressing.
Combine the pasta with the meat and vegetables and mix well. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over the salad and chill for 1⁄2 hour.
Sprinkle with chopped parsley just before serving.
This rich-flavoured rough-textured pâté is ideal to serve as part of a cold buffet table, as a starter to a meal, for picnics or shooting lunches. It is very easy to make, especially if you have a food processor.
6 wigeon breasts
225g (8oz) pig’s liver
225g (8oz) minced belly pork
225g (8oz) streaky bacon
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 glass sherry
1tbsp mixed herbs
Salt and pepper
Orange slices to garnish
Cut the rind off the bacon and remove any small bones or gristle. Stretch each rasher by pressing along its length with the back of a knife. Use the bacon to line the base and sides of a 900g (21b) loaf tin.
Chop the liver, duck meat and onions using a food processor or knife, and add the minced belly pork, crushed garlic, herbs, sherry and seasoning, and mix well.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf tin, taking care not to disturb the bacon rashers. Press the mixture down and fold over the overlapping bacon rashers.
Cover with the foil. Stand the pâté in a roasting tin and half fill with boiling water. Cook in a moderate oven, 180°C (350°F), gas mark 4, for 13⁄4-2 hours until the meat shrinks from the side of the tin.
Place another piece of foil over the pâté and top with weights. Leave to cool, then refrigerate overnight.
To serve, invert the tin onto a serving dish and decorate with slices of orange.
Gill’s Wigeon Pâté. Step by step preparation guide
For a more unusual way of preparing duck, try this tasty duck and bacon pie flavoured with herbs and spices to provide a filling family meal for a winter’s evening.
Breast meat and legs of 2 wigeon or mallard
225g (8oz) lean bacon
2 large carrots
450ml (3⁄4pt) chicken or game stock
1tbsp wholemeal flour
1tbsp mixed herbs
1 clove garlic, crushed
2tsp mixed spices
225g (8oz) shortcrust pastry
Beaten egg
Cut off the breast meat and legs from the duck and remove the skin. Chop the bacon and carrots.
In a saucepan, blend the flour with a little of the stock, gradually add the rest, stirring all the time, and bring to the boil.
Add the duck meat, bacon, carrots, herbs, garlic and spices and simmer for 3⁄4 hour.
Place a funnel in a pie dish and add the duck, bacon and carrot mixture. Top up with the gravy. Cover with the pastry, make a small hole in the centre and decorate with leaves made from the pastry trimmings. Brush with beaten egg and cook in a hot oven, 220°C (425°F), gas mark 7 for about 40 minutes or until golden brown.
Okra is one of the essential ingredients of the Louisiana Gumbo. Brought to the Southern states by African slaves, okra or ladies’ fingers is also grown in the Caribbean and Kenya and when sliced and cooked turns sticky and puts the ‘gum’ in the traditional gumbo.
Brace of wild duck
Oil for frying
445g (1lb) okra, sliced thinly
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, deseeded and chopped
3 sticks celery, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
Large tin of chopped tomatoes
2tbsp tomato purée
8 drops Tabasco
1tbsp dark brown sugar
1tbsp fresh thyme leaves
1tbsp chopped parsley
600ml (1 pint) chicken stock
Salt and black pepper
Cut off the breast meat and legs from the duck. Slice each breast in two.
Heat the oil in a flameproof casserole and brown the duck pieces. Remove the duck. Add the okra, onion, celery, pepper and garlic and cook gently for 10 minutes stirring to prevent sticking. Return the duck to the casserole.
Add the tomatoes, tomato purée, Tabasco, sugar, thyme, parsley, salt and pepper. Stir in the stock, cover and simmer for 11⁄2 hours adding more stock if necessary. Serve in a bowl over steaming hot rice.
Towards the end of shooting season, after many months toiling with feathers, you may prefer to skin the last of the duck. This recipe uses the breast meat; use the legs for pâté or pies.
Breast meat from 4 wigeon
Oil for frying
1tbsp fruit jelly
4tbsp single cream or crème fraîche
4 small sprigs rosemary
Small glass red wine
2tbsp olive oil
2tbsp balsamic vinegar
2tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
Salt and black pepper
Pack the duck breasts into a small dish. Mix together the marinade ingredients and pour over the meat. Leave to marinate for at least 2 hours.
Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the wigeon breasts for 3-4 minutes on each side. Remove from the pan, cover and leave to rest. Deglaze the pan with the marinade, stir in the fruit jelly then add the cream or crème fraîche and heat through gently. Season to taste.
Allowing 2 breasts per person, cut each one into 4 slices and arrange the meat, which should still be pink inside, in a fan shape on warm plates. Spoon a little sauce over the meat and garnish with a sprig of fresh rosemary.