Duck

Active time: 1 1/4 hr Start to finish: 12 hr (includes soaking beans)

Active time: 1 3/4 hr Start to finish: 2 1/2 hr

One of the dishes that introduced Americans to French food. This version calls for duck breasts and a simple reduction sauce.

Ken Hom likes to dry his duck the traditional way: He hangs it in front of a fan at cool room temperature for 1 day. In keeping with U.S. food-safety standards, we've adapted his technique for the refrigerator, with excellent results. The Pekin (Long Island) duck available in the U.S. has a thicker layer of fat than the French variety, but we were still able to roast away most of the fat layer, leaving mahogany-colored crisp skin. Active time: 40 min Start to finish: 3 1/2 days

(Petto di Anatra "Porchettata") Here, duck is prepared in the manner of porchetta, suckling pig stuffed with garlic and fennel. Serve with the degreased pan juices for extra flavor.

The rare breeds of Rouen Clair and Duclair from Stone Church Farm (845-658-3243) are small, tender, and have a low fat content, which makes them preferable to commercially available birds. We recommend the aged ducks, which have a richer taste. Order them two weeks ahead to allow preparation and shipping from the farm and request that the necks be removed. Since this recipe calls for a fair amount of soy sauce, it is important to use a brand with well-balanced flavors (such as Kikkoman).

This refined French appetizer is traditionally made by pounding confit of pork, goose, or (in this case) duck into a silky paste. Here a mortar and pestle is replaced by a food processor and elbow grease by a light touch — rillettes are best easily spread but not quite smooth.

This dish is similar to classic Peking duck in the way that it is eaten: Slices of breast meat, crisp skin, scallion, and hoisin sauce are rolled inside pancakes. In a traditional rendition the meat from the duck legs would be stir-fried with vegetables, but here the duck legs are served whole. Be sure to allow three days for this duck to dry in the refrigerator.

All Southern cooks have their own ways of making gumbo. Our recipe contains neither okra nor filé powder, producing a thinner, lighter gumbo.

One of the best-loved pastas in the Italian city of Trieste is the whole wheat spaghetti known as bigoli, which is often topped with anitra in sugo, an intensely flavored sauce made with duck. This recipe, from the excellent restaurant Hosteria Bellavista, also includes chicken livers, porcini mushrooms and pancetta (Italian bacon). Porcini mushrooms and bigoli are available at Italian markets and specialty foods stores.

"Pease porridge in the pot nine days old" fairly well summarizes the technique of stew preparation in Shakespeare's day. A thick soup would have been left cooking for days at a time, with new vegetables, stock, and bits of leftover meat continually added. This Italian version contains rich duck meat, a delicious and unusual addition to pea soup.

For centuries, the French have been braising duck as a way to tenderize it, whether the duck was wild or tame (use only farm-raised duck in the recipe below). The slight bitterness of turnips nicely offsets the flavorful meat rich but simple sauce. The appropriate wine choice here would be French-splurge a bit for the season and pour a good Burgundy or Chablis with this.