Roast Duckling with Apple Sauce (1912)
Reader ratingsRoast duckling with apple sauce, one of three meat dishes on one line of the Titanic’s first-class dinner card of April 14, 1912, cooked from Mrs. Beeton’s 1906 edition with sage and onion stuffing.
- Recipe makes
- 1 duckling, serving 4
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
Roasting time depends on the bird: about 1½ hours for a 4½ lb duckling, plus 15 minutes’ rest. The apple sauce can be made ahead and warmed.
Whole roast duckling with sage and onion stuffing, apple sauce and gravy.
The story behind the recipe
Roast duckling stuffed with sage and onion, with apple sauce and a thin gravy, was one of three meat dishes offered on a single line to first-class passengers on the Titanic on the evening of April 14, 1912. Its line on the card also named lamb with mint sauce and sirloin of beef. All three go under plain English names, among French-named entrées.
An English roast on a French card
The menu lists “Roast Duckling, Apple Sauce”; this recipe comes from Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management in the 1906 edition revised by her publishers, Ward, Lock. This is the dish as a household book of the day gave it; how the ship’s kitchen roasted its ducks isn’t recorded.
Beeton’s version is plain English cooking: a sage and onion stuffing, a roast “in front of a clear fire or in a moderately hot oven for about 1 hour, basting frequently,” a gravy from the pan and an apple sauce of four ingredients, the last of them “a very little water.”
The book also notes the season: ducks were “Seasonable from August to March,” so an April duckling was a late one. Her recipe is written for two birds, enough “for 8 to 9 persons.”
Read more about this recipe
Making it today
Beeton gives about an hour and doesn’t say what her ducks weighed. For a modern duckling of 4½ pounds we roast it at 400°F (200°C) for about an hour and a half and go by temperature. We make one other change and prick the skin before roasting so the fat can run out and the skin crisps.
The stuffing keeps Beeton’s proportions, halved for one bird.
What Was the Last First-Class Dinner on the Titanic? sets out the rest of that evening’s card. After that line of the card came the iced Punch à la Romaine (1912).
316.—APPLE SAUCE. (Fr.—Sauce aux Pommes.)
Ingredients.—1 lb. of apples, 1½ ozs. of sugar (or to taste), 1 oz. of butter, a little water if necessary. ...
Recipe makes: 1 duckling, serving 4
Ingredients
For 1 duckling, serving 4. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for 1 duckling, serving 4.
Sage and onion stuffing
- Onions1 lb
- Fresh white breadcrumbs5 fl oz
- Chopped fresh sage1 1/2 tsp
- Butter for the stuffing1 oz
- Salt for the stuffing1/2 tsp
- Black pepper1 pinch
Duckling
- Duckling1Author measures: about 4 1/2 lb.
- Salt for the skin1 tsp
Gravy
- Flour0.5 oz
- Chicken or duck stock10 fl oz
Apple sauce
- Cooking apples1 lb
- Sugar1.5 oz
- Butter for the apple sauce1 oz
- Water2 tbsp
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 1 lb onions
- 5 fl oz fresh white breadcrumbs
- 1.5 tsp chopped fresh sage
- 1 oz butter for the stuffing
- 0.5 tsp salt for the stuffing
- 1 pinch black pepper
- 1 duckling (about 4.5 lb)
- 1 tsp salt for the skin
- 0.5 oz flour
- 10 fl oz chicken or duck stock
- 1 lb cooking apples
- 1.5 oz sugar
- 1 oz butter for the apple sauce
- 2 tbsp water
Equipment
- Roasting pan with a rack
- Kitchen string or skewers
Instant-read thermometer- Two saucepans
- Gravy boat and sauceboat
Instructions
Heat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Dice the onions, put them in a saucepan of cold water, bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Drain well.
Melt the butter for the stuffing in the saucepan and cook the onions gently for about 15 minutes, until soft but not browned. Stir in the breadcrumbs, sage, salt for the stuffing and black pepper. Leave to cool a little.
Pat the duckling dry inside and out, pull out any loose fat from the cavity and prick the skin all over with a skewer, without piercing the meat. Fill the body with the stuffing, close the opening with a skewer or string and truss the legs. Rub the skin with the salt for the skin.
Set the duckling on a rack in a roasting pan and roast for about 1½ hours, spooning the hot fat over it every 20 to 30 minutes and pouring off the excess fat as it builds up. The duckling is done when the thickest part of the thigh reaches 165°F (74°C), the juices run clear and the center of the stuffing also reaches 165°F (74°C).
While it roasts, peel, core and slice the cooking apples. Put them in a saucepan with the sugar, butter for the apple sauce and water, cover and cook gently for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft. Beat smooth and add more sugar to taste.
Lift the duckling onto a warm platter and leave it to rest for 15 minutes.
Pour all but a spoonful of fat from the roasting pan. Stir in the flour and cook over medium heat until browned. Whisk in the stock, scraping up the browned bits, bring to a boil, season to taste and simmer for 1 to 2 minutes. Strain into a warm gravy boat.
Carve the duckling and serve with the stuffing, the gravy and the apple sauce.
Nutrition
940calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- 1 duckling, serving 4
- Servings
- 4
Estimated per serving (4) from USDA FoodData Central values for the listed ingredients, counting the roast meat and skin after the fat is poured off, with stuffing, gravy and apple sauce.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
Scales by the bird. For two ducklings, as Beeton has it, double everything and use two tins if needed.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.
Keep the duck fat you pour off: it is good for roasting the château potatoes or the boiled new potatoes that shared the card.
Beeton’s quantities are for two ducks. We halved her stuffing for one bird but kept her full half pint of stock for the gravy, our choice for a larger modern duckling. Her own time for two ducks was “from 1 to 1¼ hours.”
Cook stuffing inside a bird only if you check its center with a thermometer; otherwise bake it separately in a buttered dish at 400°F (200°C) for 30 to 40 minutes, until the center reaches 165°F (74°C).
Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
After Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management, new edition (London: Ward, Lock, 1906), Nos. 1211, 404 and 316; dish as printed on the Titanic’s first-class dinner card of April 14, 1912
Recipe details
- Course
- Main course
- Dish family
- Meat & Poultry
- Region
- British
- Era
- Edwardian
- Source decade
- 1900s
- Event
- Titanic, 1912
- Main ingredient
- Poultry & game birds
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Occasion
- Dinner party