Kachka z Yablukamy (качка з яблуками, duck with apples)

The best bite is the apple under the bird. Not the neat slice of breast, not even the bronze leg, but the tart fruit that has collapsed in the pan and drunk enough duck fat to shine. On a winter holiday table, this is the bit people pretend not to fight over. Sour apple cuts through duck the way a bright window cuts through January: suddenly the richness has somewhere to go.

Use apples with backbone, the ones that bite back. One of Aunt Nadia's letters says only, "more sour than sweet," and that was the whole instruction. She was right. The apples are not decoration. They are the knife for the fat, and if you use sweet woolly ones the bird becomes sleepy.

Salt the duck the day before if you can, leave it uncovered, and let the skin dry until it feels tight under your fingers. Prick the skin, not the flesh, so the fat can find its way out, then pour that fat into a jar as it renders. Tomorrow's potatoes will thank you. Roast until the leg loosens, the apples sigh down into the tray, and the kitchen smells deep and sweet instead of merely meaty. That's when it sounds right.