Thanks to a romantic or cheerfulthe Christmas stories of foreign film studios, we firmly grasped the menu of the New Year's table in European or American style, where the highlight of the program is always a turkey. And, wishing to join the Western culture, we rush about searching for an immense carcass (simply gigantic in our understanding) for shopping and markets, in order to prepare a real Christmas turkey. And, by the way, domestic Christmas traditions are no worse! For example, you know that in Russia on large holidays, a duck or goose was served at the table. And they were prepared in such different ways that today the recipes for this solemn dish are simply unthinkable! Try, for example, to cook a duck with cabbage and apples. Do you think there is only one way to make such a duck? At least three! Are you surprised? Then take the duck recipes with apples and sauerkraut. 
Duck baked with cabbage and apples
Ingredients:
- A large duck - about 3 kg;
- Apples of sour taste - 6 pieces;
- Sauerkraut - 1 kg;
- Dried mushrooms - 100 g;
- Onion - 3 heads;
- Honey - 2 tablespoons;
- Barberry dried - 2 pinch;
- Nutmeg - pinch;
- Caraway seeds - pinch;
- Soy sauce;
- Salt and black pepper.
Preparation: Prepare the bird in advance, for example, in the evening. To begin with, the duck needs to be processed by removing the fat from the inside (we need fat for frying) and removing the hemp from the feathers from the skin. It is not forbidden to scorch a carcass if it does not look very aesthetic in your opinion. And then the washed and dried duck must be marinated. To do this, put honey in the bowl, add a spoonful of soy sauce, salt and black pepper to taste and carefully mix everything. Now we rub the bird from the outside and inside with this marinade, wrap it in a food film and put it in the refrigerator for the night. In total, a duck should marinate for fifteen hours. Shortly before the end of pickling ducks fill the mushrooms with boiling water, wash the sauerkraut (if necessary) and mix with cumin. My apple, cut into four parts, remove the hard core and seeds. Then pour them with any suitable seasoning (not necessarily!), Barberry and nutmeg. Now we take out the duck and stuff it from inside with apples. The carcass can be sewn, or you can not do it, then put it on the scallop (goose fry) or any deep heat-resistant dish. We send the bird to the oven and bake it on high heat for about an hour and a half. While the duck with apples is cooked, we heat the fat in the brazier and we pass on it a large onion (thick rings) on it. We take out the blossomed duck from the oven, release the goose flesh and add onion on it. On the onion we spread sauerkraut, and along the walls of the form we attach steamed mushrooms. On cabbage we put a duck with apples, grease a bird with honey or even the remaining marinade, cover the form with a lid and put it back in the oven. We reduce the heat and leave the duck with sauerkraut, apples and mushrooms to languish for two hours. After a couple of hours, we remove the cover from the gessian and bring the dish to full readiness for another half an hour. We serve with boiled potatoes or without garnish, as an independent and quite self-sufficient dish. 
Duck stuffed with cabbage and apples
Ingredients:
- Duck -2-3 kg;
- Apples - 5 pieces;
- Sour cabbage - about a kilogram;
- Salt and black pepper.
Preparation: We sing, we pluck, mine and we dry the carcass of a bird. Pretty wet it from the inside and rub it with black pepper and salt. If desired, you can add a little sugar and any spices (curry, hops-suneli, paprika, barberry, etc., to taste). Cabbage, if necessary, washed, and apples cut into quarters and free from the hard center and seeds. Now we do an incision across the belly to the sternum and stuff the carcass with apples and sauerkraut, laying them alternately. The filling is packed tightly, we compact it so that the inside of the duck is completely filled with sauerkraut and apples. Then sew or chop the toothpicks (only wooden!) Cut and put the bird on the baking tray. Preheat the oven and put the duck into it for an hour and a half or two. While the duck is baked, several times we pour it over with a flowing juice and fat, which will drain onto the baking tray, but do not turn the bird! After an hour and a half we take out the baking sheet, lay out the remaining apples around the bird with cabbage and put it back in the oven for another hour. We remove the prepared duck from the filling and cut it into portions. On a large dish we spread cabbage with apples, and on top we put pieces of a bird. We serve hot. 
Fried duck with cabbage, potatoes and apples
Ingredients:
- Large carcass of duck;
- 5-6 apples;
- Kilogram of sauerkraut;
- 5-6 potatoes;
- Honey;
- Mustard;
- Salt;
- Vegetable oil.
Preparation: We can boil the duck whole almost to its full potential: the meat should become soft, but it should not fall off the bones. In advance, we boil the potatoes in a uniform, cool it and clean it. Cabbage is fried in a deep brazier in vegetable oil. To make cabbage it was fried, you need to prepare it in small portions, on high heat and in an open brazier. Toasted cabbage is mixed with the boiled potatoes cut into large slices and put in heat-resistant dishes. We remove the duck from the broth and let it dry, and then cut into small portions. In a separate bowl, mix honey with mustard (proportions - to taste) and, dipping the pieces of duck into this mixture, fry them on high heat in a brazier with red-hot vegetable oil. Similarly, fry and apples, previously cut them into eight pieces and removing the hard center. Before serving, warm the potatoes with fried sauerkraut and put them on a wide dish. We put the duck pieces on top, and the fried apples around the edges. Note: For this dish sauerkraut can be fried with onions, cut into half rings. Another option for cooking ducks is baking pieces of poultry and apples in the oven. Only in this case in the sauce we dip only the meat, and the apples cut into quarters are laid on the baking sheet next to the duck pieces. We bake a duck until a dense brown crust. And one more important point. For any variant of cooking ducks with apples and cabbage apples should be taken acidic or sweet-sour. Best of all - green (in color, not in maturity!). Try one of the recipes for cooking ducks with apples and sauerkraut. The result will definitely please you. Cook with pleasure, and a pleasant appetite for you! We advise you to read:
