breast and press it hard with a plate, and add to its own gravy, two or three spoonfuls of good gravy, cover it close with another dish, and set over the stove ten minutes, then send it to table hot in the dish it was done in, and garnish with lemon. You may add a little red wine, and a shalot cut small, if you like it, but it is apt to make the duck eat hard, unless you first heat the wine and pour it in just as it is done.
To boil a duck or rabbit with onions.
BOIL your duck or rabbit in a good deal of water; be sure to skim your water, for there will always rise a scum, which if it boils down will discolour your fowls, &c. They will take about half an hour boiling; for sauc, your onions must be peeled, and throw them into water as you peel them, then cut them into thin slices, boil them in milk and water, and skim the liquor. Half an hour will boil them. Throw them into a clean sieve to drain them, put them into a saucepan and chop them small, shake in a little flour, put to them two or three spoonfuls of cream, a good piece of butter, stew all together over the fire till they are thick and fine, lay the duck or rabbit in the dish, and pour the sauce over all; if a rabbit, you must cut off the head, cut it in two, and lay it on each side the dish. Or you may make this sauce for change: take one large onion, cut it small, half a handful of parsley clean washed and picked, chop it small, a lettuce cut small, a quarter of a pint of good gravy, a good piece of butter rolled in a little flour; add a little juice of lemon, a little pepper and salt, let all stew together for half an hour, then add two spoonfuls of red wine. This sauce is most proper for a duck; lay your duck in the dish, and pour your sauce over it.
To dress a duck with green pease.
PUT a deep stew-pan over the fire, with a piece of fresh butter; singe your duck and flour it, turn it in the pan two or three minutes, then pour out all the fat, but let the duck remain in the pan; put to it half a pint of good gravy, a pint of pease, two lettuces cut small, a small bundle of sweet-herbs, a little pepper and salt, cover them close, and let them stew for half an hour, now and then give the pan a shake; when they are just done, grate in a little nutmeg, and put in a very little beaten mace, and thicken it either with a piece of butter rolled in flour, or the yolk of an egg beat up with two or three spoonfuls of cream; shake it all together for three or four minutes, take out the sweet-herbs,