Whole Muscovy Duck

[Liza]

"What would you do?"

We've got an 5-lb+ from the kind folks at Violet Hill farm (with giblets, Jin and Wilfrid) and are looking for suggestions. We've been told that it's rather lean, due to it's free-roaming life on the farm.

[Wilfrid]

This is one I've posted before; my paraphrase of some cooking described by Manuel Vasquez Montalban in his thriller The Angst-Ridden Executive. I was thinking of putting it on the reputation maker thread. i think it would work well with an unfatty duck, and the liver and heart can be chopped up and included in the slurry. If you have the neck, treat it like the rest of the duck.

"Roast your duck lightly until it is just done. Meantime, fry chopped onions and mushrooms (by all means add truffles). When the roast has cooled, take off the breast, legs (wings if worth eating) and reserve. Scrape any other meat off the carcass and chop any innards; add these to the onion/mushroom mixture together with juices from the bird, stoned, chopped olives and chopped, good quality bacon (good ham would do, or pancetta - but look out for saltiness) and a few breadcrumbs. The aim of this mixture is to make a kind of slurry to coat the reserved pieces of meat - not a wet sauce to pour over, or a dry paste - you want to moisten the meat and have the tasty bits of mushroom, olive and meat debris evenly scattered. If you were cooking a duck, you would have plenty of juice; with game birds, you may want to add a little white wine to moisten the slurry (too wet, of course add more breadcrumbs).

Arrange the reserve meat in a baking dish and cover it with the slurry. Bake in a medium oven until the meat is perfectly tender and infused with all those flavors."

Edited January 16, 2003 by Wilfrid (log)

[Really Nice!]

Render the fat to use in sauteing other dishes.

Make any of the following:

Whole bird:

French: Roast duck stuffed with orange and apples slices, brushed with honey.

Asian: Peking duck

Breast:

French: Duck confit

Asian: Duck breast with 5 spices (fennel seed, star anise, cinnamon, cloves, and szechuan peppercorns)

Legs and thighs:

French: Cassolette

Save the carcuss to make a duck stock.

[Suzanne F]

Cut it up. Braise it with the usual aromatics plus a little smoked paprika and some wild mushrooms, and add some sherry to the braising liquid. Remove the pieces when they're cooked. Skim any fat off the juices. Reduce if necessary, and/or add ground almonds to thicken. Before serving, add some whole pitted green olives and the chopped giblets to the sauce. Serve with saffron rice.

[Wilfrid]

the usual aromatics

Of course, of course.

[Liza]

I'm leaning towards a recipe found on Epicurious - Canard au Miel or Duck with Honey.

Score the flesh of the duck and rub in a mixture of lavender, thyme, sea salt and black pepper. Roast for two hours at 375, pouring off some fat then adding boroth and red wine to the pot and brushing the duck with lavender honey. Sounds simple and blazingly aromatic.

[Wilfrid]

Just wanted us all running around, right?

[Liza]

Dash the thought, Mighty W!

As I was able to wade through the four responses to my initial query with some ease (ahem), I looked round for other solutions.

[hollywood]

I'm leaning towards a recipe found on Epicurious - Canard au Miel or Duck with Honey.

Score the flesh of the duck and rub in a mixture of lavender, thyme, sea salt and black pepper. Roast for two hours at 375, pouring off some fat then adding broth and red wine to the pot and brushing the duck with lavender honey. Sounds simple and blazingly aromatic.

I believe I had this dish or something very similar at a friend's on Christmas. It was great. For reasons not clear to me a white wine, perhaps German was served. Regardless, the duck was superb and oddly there did not seem to be nearly as much fat/drippings as I had anticipated. As far as being aromatic, my sinuses were compomised so I'm not fit to comment.

[Busboy]

Cut it up, brown it, rendering as much fat as possible. Braise in a bottle of the best sauterne-like wine you can afford (well, someone else used the phrase "by all means add truffles," so I figure cost is no object) and chicken or duck stock to cover, with chopped carrots, leeks, parsley etc. When the duck is almost done, remove it from the braising liquid. Cool, skim, reduce if needed, and then add the duck back and warm just before serving. Serve on top of wild rice.

[Jinmyo]

I'm with Busboy and Suzanne. Cut it up. Roasting whole birds is absurd. Render the fat etc etc etc.

But you've already made up your mind anyway...

[Liza]

Leaning, Jin, still leaning. My mind is rarely made up, preferring a state of deshabille.

[Suzanne F]

Liza, I used to get Muscovies from the Quattros, and they were very, very lean. Just a reminder.

[Tonyfinch]

On TV recently Delia Smith said that after years of trying she'd finally cracked whole roast duck

Pour boiling water over it and pat dry. Make sure its dry

Prick all over with a fork to make holes for the fat to run out.

Sprinkle with salt.

Roast in a HOT oven for the whole time. DO NOT TURN OVEN DOWN. Time depends on your oven and duck size but allow 20 mins per pound at least.

Pour off fat from the pan regularly.

That's it. You will be left with a mahogany fat free duck with crispy skin. Works every time. Apply stuffings, sauces etc AFTERWARDS

[elyse]

I saw a Jean Georges duck recipe once where he did a bit of prep, and then hung the duck in the refrigerator for three days before roasting. I think it was on Martha's Kitchen (sorry). I've been looking around for this recipe for just under a year. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

[Matt Seeber]

elyse,

this technique can be seen to serve two purposes:

- air-dry the skin in order to obtain a very crispy, cooked end result.

- similar to aged beef where the actual mass of the product is reduced, therefore tenderizing the meat and concentrating the flavors.

everyone’s technique is different, but it usually involves dunking the bird for a very short time in a flavored cooking liquid in order to seize-up the skin.

[Liza]

Thanks to all. We ended up doing Julia Childs three cooking method - steam then braise then roast. Ended up with a finely toned, beautifully browned bird that we were so tired of looking at we didn't even eat. Should sample it tonight.

[IrishCream]

Gosh...I was just about to post...that whatever you do...DON'T use Julia Child's method. I will never cook duck again because of her method. It took ALL day and I suppose it tasted allright, but I was not about to taste it by the time I was done. What a torturous process.

Edit (the old recipe where after roasting to rare, you cut the duck up and finish the legs, breasts and cracklings separately)

Edited January 20, 2003 by IrishCream (log)

[Liza]

It was pretty arduous, but turned out alright - a worthwhile experiment but not likely to be repeated unless the space time continuum opens up and we have way too much free time.

[elyse]

I saw a Jean Georges duck recipe once where he did a bit of prep, and then hung the duck in the refrigerator for three days before roasting.  I think it was on Martha's Kitchen (sorry).  I've been looking around for this recipe for just under a year.  Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Well, as always, my post is the newly lit cigarette while waiting for a bus. The duck was on again Friday, and the recipe actually posted on the tvfn site. My mistake, it was Christian Albin (sp?) of The Four Seasons, not JG. How much time have I wasted? I think it's www.foodtv.com, search four seasons duck, and it should come up, if anyone's interested.