I carry no phone An aspiring Luddite In a wired world. Mastodon Verification Link	Jeff Berry is an early adopter of the Internet and the Web, a late adopter of Twitter, and declines to adopt Facebook. With the death of Google+, he migrated to the Fediverse. He admins a medievalist Mastodon instance. He hates cell-phones.

Duck - it's like chicken but almost always better! A bold statement, you may say, and so it is. So bold, in fact, that I won't even pretend it's defensible. However, I will say that duck is a great alternative to chicken every now and then, especially if you like dark meat. Furthermore, while a high-end, organic, free-range (etc) chicken may compare favorably with a duck, even a mediocre duck will tend to blow the socks of a standard issue, mass-produced chicken.

They can be a bit fatty, which is good on the one hand since that's where the flavour lives, but which can require a little care in the cooking and choice of condiment or sauce in order to deal with the tendency toward grease. For the former, cooking in ways that allow the fat to render off and drain are usually preferred, and for the latter, something with acid is a common tactic. Duck a l'orange goes for the citrus, cranberry sauce or relish works a treat, but one can also live on the wild side and go for cabbage, fermented cabbage - sauerkraut.

• 1 lb sauerkraut
• 1 duck
• 3 potatoes
• 1 onion
• salt and pepper

Put the sauerkraut into a roasting dish. The dish needs to be high enough that you can suspend the duck above the vegetables, so plan accordingly. Slice the potatoes fairly thinly and layer them on top of the 'kraut. Slice the onion thinly and layer it on top of the potatoes.

Break the duck down, it will help it cook more evenly. One advantage of the somewhat fatty bird is that it's a bit more forgiving as far as overcooking and drying out is concerned. Save the duck back, neck and giblets for stock - or whatever else takes your fancy. Give the bird-bits a fairly thorough dusting with salt and pepper. Place a roasting rack across the top of your dish, high above the vegetables. Arrange the duck on the rack.

Pop it into the oven for ten minutes, then turn the heat down to 350F for an hour and a half or so. You can skew long, as noted above, since the fattiness will keep it from drying out too quickly, but if you like it a little pink, then start easy and check it as you go.

The fat will melt off, or at least some will, and drip down onto the vegetables, and if you've never had sauerkraut which has cooked in duck fat, you are in for a treat ...