My First Duck

[Aloha Steve]

I have a 4.02lb duck defrosting in the fridge. I'm anxious about cooking that bad boy (How do we know it was not a girl I welcome any and all, tips, techniques, suggestions anything you care to tell me. I have no illusions of doing anything fancy with it. I just want to cook it properly and for it to have a nice taste.

I have read of some of the comments here like, having to empty the pan of fat a few times during cooking. Never, ever throw away said fat as its good for cooking other things.

Thanks,

steve

[ScoopKW]

I have read of some of the comments here like, having to empty the pan of fat a few times during cooking. Never, ever throw away said fat as its good the best thing in the world for cooking other things potatoes, eggs, and a lot of other things.

Fixed it for you.

I do a full on Peking duck with a twist -- [deep breath] After submerging the duck in boiling water (and wine, starch and soy) twice for 30 seconds each, then hanging for two hours with a fan blowing on it, I roast. I turn the duck twice -- pouring off the fat each time. Then I hit it with all manner of spices and finish it for another 20 minutes or so. That way, I get my favorite duck recipe, with generous amounts of duck fat that doesn't taste like star anise.

I make this any time I run low on duck fat -- which I use for frying eggs and potatoes, mostly.

[Aloha Steve]

I have read of some of the comments here like, having to empty the pan of fat a few times during cooking. Never, ever throw away said fat as its good the best thing in the world for cooking other things potatoes, eggs, and a lot of other things.

Fixed it for you.

LOL, thank you...........

[Blether]

Yup, roast it. I love crispy duck n' pancakes n' plum sauce when I eat at a Chinese place that does a good job of it, but haven't tried it at home. I find I'm happy with a pre-salt and simple roast - we had duck a few times as Christmas dinner for two (Christmas isn't a trad family get-together in Japan, and my wider family being far, far away). All that fat in the bird, nice tasty meat - what more do you need ? Fridges are dry inside - if you choose to go simple, just rub in enough salt for your taste, and leave it in there uncovered, say overnight, on a rack of some sort.

One thing you might consider, if you're not too fussy about a whole-bird presentation, is to detach the breast section (in one piece, on the bone) before roasting, so you can lift it off when it's done - the challenge always seems to be to cook the legs just right before the breast is getting dry and tired. 'Course you can cut the breast off once you've cooked it that far, but you might find it easier while it's cold.

[tim]

I do a full on Peking duck with a twist -- [deep breath] After submerging the duck in boiling water (and wine, starch and soy) twice for 30 seconds each, then hanging for two hours with a fan blowing on it, I roast. I turn the duck twice -- pouring off the fat each time. Then I hit it with all manner of spices and finish it for another 20 minutes or so. That way, I get my favorite duck recipe, with generous amounts of duck fat that doesn't taste like star anise.

I make this any time I run low on duck fat -- which I use for frying eggs and potatoes, mostly.

Scoop,

Your technique sounds wonderful. We'd love to see the details...

Tim

[ScoopKW]

Your technique sounds wonderful. We'd love to see the details...

Oh dear....

Ersatz Peking Duck

Ingredients

At least two ducks (Because this is a long, complicated recipe. It's not worth doing just one)

Shaoxing wine (you can substitute saki, or even Sauvignon Blanc if you have to)

Fresh ginger, sliced

rice wine vinegar

Soy sauce

Corn starch

Five spice powder

For the pancakes

AP Flour

Scallions

Sesame Oil

1) Remove all the giblets from the ducks. Reserve and make pâté.

2) Using a pair of tweezers pliers, pluck any pins. It's much easier to do it now before the duck is boiled.

3) In a pot that will hold at least one duck, fill with as much water as is safe. This is like boiling pasta -- you want a lot of water.

4) Make a slurry with corn starch, add to the water -- the amount will depend on the volume of water. I just eyeball it. You want the water good and cloudy. I'd start with two or three tablespoons.

5) Add a good glug or two of vinegar, wine and soy and about five thick slices of fresh ginger

6) Bring to a full rolling boil.

7) While you wait for the water to boil, crucify the poor duckies. Cut the tips off the wings, and shove a chopstick under the skin at the elbow -- through one wing, across the back, and out the other wing. Looks gruesome. Tie a length of butcher's twine at each end of the chopstick so you can hold the duck like a marionette and plunge it into the boiling water. (And then hang the duck from a hook.)

8) Dip each duck in the boiling pot, and ladle the cooking liquid over the duck for 30 seconds. Then wait two minutes and repeat.

9) Hang the ducks in a cool, dry area. Place a sheet pan under them to collect the drippings. (Render the drippings -- more fat!) Position electric fans (as much airflow as you can muster) (edit -- but not a wind tunnel, either) to blow on the duck skin and leave for at least two hours. The longer you leave it, the crispier the skin is going to be. You can go up to about six hours. This is an ideal time to make pâté.

10) Remove the chopsticks and place ducks, breast side up on a roasting rack into a 350f oven. Cook for 30 minutes. Flip (and pour the fat into Pyrex). Cook 45 minutes more. Pour fat and then dust the entire surface LIGHTLY with Five Spice -- too much five spice and the duck is going to taste like a licorice stick. (edit -- Seriously, easy on the five spice. Too little is much better than too much. Sprinkle as if you're adding nutmeg to béchamel.)

11) Cook another 30 minutes and allow to rest uncovered for five. Pour the last bit of fat (if there is any) into a separate container -- it's five-spice fat now -- only to be used for Chinese sauté jobs. Serve hot with pancakes, scallions and hoisin.

Use this recipe on about.com for the pancakes.

The first time you make pancakes it will take a lot of time to roll them out properly. Start the pancakes as soon as you put the duck in the oven. You can also just use warm flour tortillas brushed with a tiny amount of sesame oil, and there's little difference in taste. But my mother-in-law would disagree. (And probably strangle me for suggesting it.)

You'll also need a bunch of scallions, cut into two-inch lengths, and sliced repeatedly at the top so it resembles a paint brush.

Slice the duck thin -- I like a little meat in my pancakes, but in China they slice off JUST the skin, and eat the meat separately (and then make a soup with the carcass).

Paint the pancake with hoisin using the scallion brush. Then place the brush in the pancake and add duck skin. Roll, eat, repeat.

Serve the rest of the meat with rice, and some veg -- sautéed bok choy, for instance. While eating, deglaze the roasting pan and simmer the bones for an hour. Then toss in more bok choy (or substitute napa cabbage) and some large-dice firm tofu. Season with salt and white pepper and serve to cap off the meal.

Wine pairing? Vintage champagne, brut. This dish deserves it.

Edited March 11, 2010 by ScoopKW (log)

[Aloha Steve]

Roast it I did Blether. After reading ScoopKW's recipe, I tried to sell it for 1/2 price, no takers. No way could I do that recipe or have the space or spouse to allow me too. Lucky for me Ohba came to my rescue and sent me a easy Chinese roast duck recipe. I did not have enough honey, so I subbed hoisin for some and I am very pleased. Thank you very much Ohba !

There are a few parts missing as you may be able to tell

With the rest, I will take the skin off, fry it till more crispy and then put it back on or next to the meat and eat.

I learned that trick here about frying chicken skin, it should work for the duck too.

I also have some very nice rendered fat, about 6 oz. very clear and about as much with some of the sauce I used to cook the duck. I'll try skimming the top as much as I can, once the liquid has cooled. And I am saving every bone & cartilage piece to make stock.

Edited March 13, 2010 by Aloha Steve (log)

[EllenC]

I've had smoked duck once - it was good but I don't have a smoker. I have never cooked duck before. I was in the store the other night and they had frozen ducks. So I figured, "what the heck?" I bought one. Would anyone like to give me some tips? I don't have a mass of fat, so confit probably isn't an option, but maybe... I was thinking of seared breast, but how do I flavor that? Skin on or off? What about the legs/thighs? Is roasting good? I make this butter with mustard and thyme - could I smear them with that and roast? I live by myself so I want to experiment with a couple of things in case I decide to do this for company, but I would like some ideas.

Thanks,

Ellen

[mkayahara]

You could roast it whole, but if you'd prefer to cut it into parts - I know I would, if I were eating it by myself - then yes, sear the breasts, skin on. Start by scoring the skin, and rendering out as much of the fat as possible over low heat, then raise the heat to crisp the skin and finish the cooking.

As for the legs, they braise very nicely, and are quite good with root vegetables.

[Anna N]

Never had a miss with this for the legs - I usually only make 2 and adjust quantities accordingly. Meltingly tender meat with crispy skin!

[lstrelau]

Posted this in a previous duck thread but will re-iterate for you here. If you want to try it, send me a PM and I will give you specific temps and other details (if you can't find a recipe online). Yes, this is a bit more work than simply roasting the duck but you are ensured of proper cooking of what otherwise can be overcooked breast, undercooked thighs and flabby skin. Her method gives you perfectly cooked everything plus easy service for company. You can, meanwhile, eat the components by yourself for several meals.

When I have been presented with a whole duck I go back to a recipe from Julia Child (in either "Company" or "More Company" though it might be in her other books as well) where she:

1. Roasts whole bird at a high temperature for a relatively short timejust to get it partially cooked.

2. Dismember said bird - remove breasts, legs/thighs, all the skin, reserve carcass and wings & tips for stock

3. Coat legs & thighs with dijon mustard and roll in fresh bread crumbs and continue to roast til done to your taste

4. Cut the skin into 1/2 inch wide strips and roast in pan along with legs until it turns into yummy crackling.

5. At service, slice the breasts on the angle and poach briefly in port and (I think) swirl in some butter to finish the sauce - I can't remmeber the precise rest of the details here.

6. Serve the now perfectly cooked parts of the bird = slices of breast, a succulent crusted leg/thigh and some crispy, tasty crackling. You have the carcass for stock and should be rendered fat for another use. (or make duck soup!

Sorry, this is somewhat vague since I am on a road trip and don't have cookbooks with me but, as Julia says, this is a great way to have all of the duck cooked properly (as oppossed to just trying to roast it whole) and there is no last minute fussing with trying to carve a bird for service, the messy stuff is done ahead of time.

She recommends (and I fully concur) serving this with a green vegetable and a silky smooth puree of parsnips - great combo.

[nickrey]

I tea-smoke duck all the time.

You only need a wok and a bamboo steamer with lid.

Take off the duck's breasts. Put them skin side down in a cold pan. Turn on the heat to let the skin brown slightly and render out some of the fat (a few minutes will do). Next place the breasts skin side down in the bamboo steamer with the lid on.

Put two layers of aluminium foil on the bottom of your wok. Mix the contents of a tea bag with an equal amount of rice and sugar and put it on the foil. Turn wok on high, place bamboo steamer in wok covering the package. Cook/smoke until done (probably around five minutes, depends on the heat of your wok burner).

A few tips:

1. This produces a lot of smoke so it helps if you have a good range hood or, as I do, do it outside on the wok burner on the BBQ grill.

2. The bamboo steamer will become very impregnated with smoke. It will become your smoking steamer only.

Here is a picture of the finished dish when done with puy lentils, carrot, celery, and onion.

Edited April 21, 2011 by nickrey (log)

[kayb]

I've never tried this recipe, but there was one this week in the NYT in Sam Sifton's column for duck ragout that sounded positively stunning. I can't wait to try it.

[DanM]

Or this recent thread where I had fun with a duck.

You can confit duck legs with olive oil instead of schmaltz.

Don't forget to use the carcass for stock... oh that is good stock!

Dan

[ChrisTaylor]

Last time I bought a duck, I rendered enough fat from the bird--and this was just a regular supermarket bird--to confit both legs. I took the breasts off and used them for something else. I then hacked at the bird with a knife, peeling away all the skin and fat (there's a lot in the tail). This I rendered in water (someone posted a recipe for rendering duck fat on eGullet--I think I stumbled across it in the cassoulet cook-off thread). This fat, plus the fat that oozed sexily out of the legs when I started to confit them, was enough to pretty much cover the legs. No need to buy an expensive tub of duck grease. The confit legs then ended up in cassoulet but given it's summer up your way you could do something a bit more seasonally appropriate: a pasta, a salad, whatever.

[JHeald]

I would highly recommend using the legs for confit, and you don't necessarily need a lot of fat (or all duck fat). If you can keep a water bath at a consistent temperature for a long time, you could always cook the legs in a plastic bag (foodsaver or ziplock), which requires considerably less fat. When I made duck confit, I actually used a combination of the rendered duck fat and olive oil: from a google search, I found that some Italian recipes call for using entirely olive oil. Confit legs are definitely worth the time, and the wait!

Good luck, and have fun!

[OliverB]

If you cut it up (make sure to check the bird first, I've had some where the breasts were so small that they didn't make a dinner portion by a far reach) you can also take the skin off, put it on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, one other paper on top and an other baking sheet on top, put in the oven (I'd have to look up the temp) until crisp. This way it stays nice and flat. you can trim it into strips or squares before you cook it, then use as garnish.

Cook the breasts Sous Vide if you can (as mentioned above, zip lock bags and a big pot of water works, if you have a thermometer to control the temp reasonably well) I think I gave them a quick sear before plating. Very tasty.

If you cook it hole, make enough little holes in the skin so the fat can leak out. Either nick with a sharp knife or use a skewer or needle. There is probably going to be a LOT of fat leaking out, you don't really want that under the skin or inside the bird.

I've never done confit, but just read about making it Sous Vide with little fat in Modernist Cuisine, says they could not tell the difference between one made this way, and one made the traditional way in lots of duck fat. I tend to believe them. And I think this could be done relatively easy even if w/o a waterbath machine.

I'm not sure I'd smoke it, I find poultry from the smoker develops an almost inedible skin, more like plastic than something crackling, at least my experience with chicken.

I'd say you'll have the most success if you cut the bird up and cook the breasts and legs separate, but this might not be practical for a dinner party. A whole roasted duck is still quite good :-)

[EllenC]

Thanks everybody. Definitely having duck for dinner tomorrow. I am excited to try some of these ideas.

Ellen