The earliest ducks (anatra) were mallards, domesticated over 2,300 years ago in China, and as early as 1000 bce in Greece (Christian Teubner, Sybil Gräfin Schönfeldt, and Siegfried Scholtyssek, The Chicken and Poultry Bible: The Definitive Sourcebook). The ducks found on contemporary restaurant menus are up to three times the size of their ancestors, and include the Rouen, the Aylesbury, the Nantais, and the Pekin.
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