Smoking a whole duck - ideas?

[Reconstructing Dinner]

I am going to try my hand a smoking a whole duck this weekend. TX BBQ style, rather than tea-smoked or Asian. Any thoughts on whether I should score the duck breast to release the fat while smoking? Better to let it melt under the skin?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

RD

Edited August 15, 2008 by Reconstructing Dinner (log)

[Pam R]

I've never scored the skin when smoking whole ducks. I do it on the Webber and make sure it's got a good pan with water under the duck to catch all that fat. This is one of my favourite ways to cook duck.

[weinoo]

Me too - no need to score...but I always found that brining overnight added a lot to the finished product, though made the skin inedible.

[Henry dV]

I don`t score wild duck ever as there is no need, reared duck however is another matter, IMHO it needs it to release the fat slowly and provide a crispy skin.

However at the moment I am in the minority so it may just be "horses for courses"

[Reconstructing Dinner]

No scoring it is. I was leaning that way, but was overwhelmed by the conflicting recommendations I found on the internet. Thanks for verifying.

RD

[Pam R]

Me too - no need to score...but I always found that brining overnight added a lot to the finished product, though made the skin inedible.

←

Too salty? The smoked duck skin is the best part or the bird! I don't brine, but use kosher ducks, so let's call it even. What else do you do to the duck?

[Dave the Cook]

Brining makes the skin kind of flabby.

Mitch, you can mitigate the problem by starting a day earlier. Brine the first day, then let the bird sit uncovered on a rack in the fridge the second. Alternatively, someone around here has suggested using a blow dryer to achieve the same effect more quickly (not being troubled with hair, I have no such appliance, and haven't tried the technique).

[Reconstructing Dinner]

Smoking the duck was an interesting experiment,. As TX BBQ is my comfort zone, the rub was a blend of salt, pepper and chili powder (and cayenne pepper because, well, because I like hot), and I used mesquite chips. I stuffed a local peach in the cavity, which didn't add flavor to the meat but ended up with a pretty amazing velvety texture. I think pureed it would have made a nice sauce, but I didn't think about it until later.

After almost 4 hours in the smoker at about 225 I put the duck in a 500 degree oven for 10 minutes, which really did crisp up the skin.

I had read that all the fat keeps the smoke from penetrating the meat, and I really found that to be true. Of course, the duck has so much flavor that it was still really tasty. Next time, though, I may just roast in the oven.

Overall, the duck was really good. We ate it with one of our standard summer meals: homemade pupusas, cabbage and corn salsa (Boy coined "slawsa") -- a take on Salvadorian curdito , avocados and lime juice. (If you read the Dinner! thread, you might hhave come across this same dinner with pork. ) Anyway, the duck stood up nicely to the other very prominent flavors.

I'm going to make mu shu duck with the rest of the meat and stock out of the carcass.

Thanks for all the suggestions and comments.

RD

Edited August 18, 2008 by Reconstructing Dinner (log)