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I love duck. It tastes delicious. It is easy to prepare in dozens of different ways: from tartare and semi-raw breast, through roast, confit, to broths, dumplings, pates and terrines. Many world cuisines have made it their symbols, such as French foie gras, Chinese Peking duck, or Polish duck baked in apples. Chefs in many restaurants have taken a liking to duck fat as an addition to dishes. And it is also one of the healthiest meats - duck fat has vitamins and - for meat - a low content of saturated fats.

The first Polish cookbook, "Compendium ferculorum, albo kolekcjanie wynagrodzenia", published in 1682 in Kraków, written by chef Stanisław Czerniecki, who served for thirty years at the court of the Kraków voivode, Aleksander Lubomirski, lists duck among the most important meats served at banquets in the following order: buffalo, oxen, heifers, calves, animelle, young lambs, old rams, skops, feeder pigs, various sausages, feeder capons, manor capons, chickens, old hens, young pigeons, old geese, young geese, old turkeys, young turkey hens, ducks, rabbits, elks, bisons, deer, fallow deer, wild hogs, wild goats, roe deer, hares, bustards, rowans, partridges, capercaillies, black grouses, ptarmigans, fieldfare, snowfowl, waxwings, chubs, quails, wild geese, garganeys, wild ducks, sleigh rides. Among 100 meat dishes, 100 fish dishes and 100 dairy dishes, pates, cakes and pastries there are recipes for: cold marinade of duck and wild duck meat. The latter recipe goes something like this: "Thickly stuff geese or wild ducks with bacon and soak in wine vinegar for two hours. Wrap in a napkin. Take marjoram or rosemary or coriander. Salt. Put in this vinegar and after weighing give cold treated with flowers or greenery".

In turn, in the book published in Warsaw in 1808, "A perfect cook in exquisite taste with convenient economy, or a method of cooking various meat and fish dishes, making thickets, sauces, jellies for them, baking pates, cakes, pies, frying jams and sugars from all kinds of fruit, as well as distilling various good vodkas, liqueurs, syrups, along with interesting experienced secrets, necessary for home use, for preserving and preserving food, vegetables, herbs, etc. in the pantry." For the convenience of citizens and housewives, provided for printing, we will find recipes for potash duck, potash with chestnuts, duck meat, skewered duck with capers, duck with mushrooms, skewered duck with sausages, duck with orange juice, duck for a carrot dish, duck with chestnuts, duck for a stew, duck a la Genoa, duck a la braise, stuffed duck. The latter recipe goes something like this: "Make a stuffing for duck as follows: cut up veal milk, bacon, parsley, onion, mushrooms or champignons, add salt and pepper, chop everything finely, put the stuffing into the duck, tie it up so it doesn't fall out, put the duck in a pot, cover it with bacon leaves, pour in a glass of white wine, add broth, slice carrots, throw in a bunch of parsley, add cloves, cook well, strain the sauce through a sieve, skim off the fat, serve warm."

The most famous Polish cook, Lucyna Ćwierciakiewiczówna, in her cookbook, published a dozen or so times, at the end of the nineteenth century, "365 dinners for five zlotys by Lucyna C., author of a course on farming for women, the only practical recipes, a guide to order, etc.", provides a recipe for cold duck pâté, roasted ducks, a roasted duck dish, a duck stew with apples, a duck dish with pearl barley, roasted wild ducks, a duck dish with parmesan. The latter recipe goes something like this: "Cook the fat duck with vegetables, as usual for broth, when it is half-soft cut into skillful pieces. Take half a pound of the best rice for one duck, scald it on the fire, put it in a saucepan, pour in the duck broth, put the duck in together and cook, making sure that the rice deflates and does not burn. Place the duck on a platter, sandwiching it with rice and sprinkling it quite thickly with parmesan, there should be a lot of rice sprinkled with cheese on top, pour the fat collected from the duck broth over it, sprinkle with breadcrumbs and put in the oven for 15 minutes to brown".

Duck was the culinary theme of my Christmas this year. Apart from fish and butter, it was the only meat on the Christmas table. I approached the subject with a meticulous plan and panache, and I started work a week before Christmas Eve, devoting almost three solid days to it. The end result is four duck dishes: duck confit, duck terrine, duck dumplings and duck ramen.

Buy five large ducks. A large duck must weigh 2.5 kilograms. Cut out the breasts and legs. Bake the leftovers without seasoning for an hour and a half covered and half an hour uncovered at 180 degrees until the fat has completely melted. Drain the fat. Put the whole garlic cut in half, rosemary, salt and pepper in a small pot. Put three breasts and three legs - this is about how much fat will cover, and if there is not enough, add rapeseed oil to completely cover the meat. Simmer for two hours. When it cools and sets, you can store it in the fridge for up to several months. Before serving, fry the confit breasts and legs in very hot fat with butter, garlic and rosemary, so that the skin turns brown and becomes crispy. Serve it best with mashed potatoes with butter and milk, beetroot fried in three tablespoons of oil with a tablespoon of potato flour, spinach fried briefly in oil with garlic and a tablespoon of soy sauce, and a sauce made of onion and carrots, which were fried in butter with white wine and cream after baking.

Pour water over the roasted duck remains, add carrots, parsley, celery, leek, onions roasted on the grill or under the grill, bay leaves, allspice, pepper and salt. Cook on very low heat for 12 hours. Drain, remove fat from the surface. With a sharp knife, score a crisscross pattern on the fatty side of the duck breast, which is at room temperature. Place in a cold pan and fry well on both sides, adding salt and pepper while frying. Then put in the oven preheated to 180 degrees for 10 minutes - if you want a very pink breast, or for 12 minutes - if you like it just pink, or for 14 minutes if you don't like pink. After baking, let rest for at least 5 minutes, then cut into thin, half-centimeter slices. Place the egg at room temperature in boiling water for exactly 6 minutes. Salt the boiling water to minimize the likelihood of the egg cracking. After removing from boiling water, immediately pour cold water over it to stop the cooking. Asians cook eggs this way to obtain perfectly set white and perfectly runny yolk. Fry oyster mushrooms or other mushrooms cut into strips in butter with soy sauce. Cut fresh peppers in two or three colors into feathers. Cut chives crosswise. Place cooked rice noodles in a bowl, place sliced duck drizzled with sauce made of finely chopped ginger, honey, chili and soy sauce, pepper, oyster mushrooms and halved egg. Pour hot duck ramen over everything and enjoy.

To make the terrine, mince the fresh meat from three duck breasts and four trimmed duck legs, and a generous amount of fresh duck liver. Mince several times, as finely as possible, along with a large handful of blanched raisins. Add whole raisins, pine nuts, three whole eggs, some breadcrumbs, good brandy or your favorite liqueur if you prefer a home-made version. Season generously with salt and pepper. Bake for an hour and a half in a bain-marie. Leave to cool, then refrigerate overnight. It tastes fabulous with currants or cranberries.

Bake two breasts and three legs covered with garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper. Cool, remove bones and chop finely. Add fresh chives and finely chopped and cooled onion fried in butter. Make dumplings from the filling obtained in this way. Fry dumplings in a small amount of duck fat, without turning, until the skin is well browned, then pour a generous amount of ramen, but not more than halfway and cook covered. Put on a plate, pour the resulting sauce over and decorate with parsley. You can also serve traditionally, in beetroot borscht.