268 COOKERY OF DUCKS AND GEESE 



summer-time were embosomed in the bloom of roses, 

 and the ducks were turned loose in the rose gardens 

 to feed on the cockchafers that settle on the petals. 

 Those particular beetles give a soft richness to the 

 flavour, whereas the common cockchafer taints the 

 flesh. 



Among the many cookery books for guidance as 

 to game of all sorts and practical recipes I am inclined 

 to trust to Meg Dods. With wild-fowl especially, 

 for they used to swarm in the watery wildernesses, 

 and the Frenchman taught the Scot how to cook. 

 When Caleb Balderstone robbed the Wolf's Hope 

 cooper of his christening supper, Mr. Girder had a 

 goose and a brace of wild ducks on the spits before 

 the fire, the best part of the supper, as he ruefully 

 remarked when he had lost them. For, after all, the 

 best way of treating ducks is simple roasting, and 

 here are Meg's instructions. ' Keep them at least 

 three days.' That all depends on the weather, and 

 in a hard winter three weeks would be nearer the 

 mark. ' From twenty- five minutes to half an hour 

 will roast them.' The longer time for mallards, &c., 

 and less than the shorter for teal. ' Baste well, and 

 dust lightly with flour to make them froth and look 

 of a rich warm brown.' For the roasting, Cre-Fydd 

 makes a good suggestion, as to previously rubbing 



