Ingredient: Duck
Category: Poultry
Season: All
Domesticated ducks
All domestic ducks are descended from the wild Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, except the Muscovy Duck.
Domestic breeds have become much larger than their wild ancestor, with a "hull length" (from base of neck to base of tail) of 30 cm (12 inches) or more and routinely able to swallow an adult BritishCommon Frog (Rana temporaria) whole.
Many ducks are also kept for show, as pets or for their ornamental value.
Farming
Ducks have been farmed for hundreds of years.
They are not as popular as the chicken, because chickens have much more white lean meat and are easier to keep confined. Nevertheless, the duck is a popular and well known farm bird.
In Vietnam, their blood is used in a food called tiết canh.
Their eggs are blue-green to white depending on the breed.
Ducks can be kept free range, in cages, or in batteries.
To be healthy, ducks should be allowed access to water, though battery ducks are often denied this. They should be fed a grain and insect diet.
It is a popular misconception that ducks should be fed bread; bread has limited nutritional value and can be deadly when fed to developing ducklings.
The females of most breeds of domestic duck are very unreliable at sitting their eggs and raising their young, and it has been the custom on farms for centuries to put duck eggs under a broody hen for hatching; nowadays incubators are usually used.
Young ducklings rely on their mother for a supply of preen oil to make them waterproof, and a hen does not make as much preen oil as a duck; and an incubator makes none.
Everyone associates Aylesbury with ducks, which is where production in this country used to be centred, but now most commercial ducks come from Lincolnshire and Norfolk and are very distant descendants of the original Aylesbury breed.
The majority come oven-ready, weighing 4-5 lb (1.8-2.25 kg), and will feed four people.
Foie gras is often made using the liver of domestic ducks, rather than of geese.
Wild Ducks - Game birds
Hunting
In many areas, wild ducks of various species (including ducks farmed and released into the wild) are hunted for food or sport, by shooting, or formerly by decoys. From this came the expression "a sitting duck", which means "an easy target".
Despite widespread misconceptions, most ducks other than female Mallards and domestic ducks do not "quack"; for example, the scaup makes a noise like "scaup", which its name came from.
Some duck species, mainly those breeding in the temperate and Arctic Northern Hemisphere, are migratory; those in the tropics, however, are generally not.
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