Duck: The Topic

[Sentiamo]

Just is case anyone gets a duck with feathers sometime.. ..here is the way to make plucking a breeze.

Boil up a pot of water, add some parrafin wax and melt. Dip the whole duck into the water and hold it there for a minute, then dunk it straight into a bucket of cold water. Leave in the cold water for 3-4 minutes. The wax sets really hard and the feathers all come off encased in the wax. An easy and clean method.

It is duck shooting season here very soon, and dawn and dusk are deafening times of the day. I am preparing myself.

[dcarch]

It took me a little while; I finally was able to get a whole duck. I mean WHOLE duck (everything minus feathers).

Duck is delicious the many ways you make it. There are many classic recipes for making ducks. I have done most typical duck recipes. Duck a l'Orange, Peking duck --------.

However, to me, duck has many parts, each part require a different way of cooking to make the best of it.

The skin, the breast meat, the legs, feet, wings, liver, guts, bones --------.

For the many dishes I will be making, here is how I completely deconstructed the duck.

dcarch

[Blether]

I like your style. There has to be a whole topic there, "Workshop tools in the kitchen".

[Crouton]

I picked up a whole frozen Duck at Publix the other day and figured I'd give it a shot. Having never cooked a duck before I'd like to start with something fairly simple so no duck confit etc.

Can I roast it like I would chicken?

Or should I remove the breasts and cook those separately? If so, what would I do with the legs & thighs?

Should I make a stock out of the carcass like I normally do with chicken?

thanks for any suggestions.

[SylviaLovegren]

What kind of duck? Some of the farm raised birds are incredibly fatty, while wild ducks are lean. Makes a big difference in how to cook.

[liuzhou]

Yes. Roast it. That is the easiest.

Be sure to save the rendered fat. It is gold.

Instructions easily available on the interweb thing.

Then make stock. Yes.

You could do the breast separately, but I'd leave that till a second attempt. Hundreds of ways to deal with breasts. Ask Mr. Google.

Then roast the leg/thighs.

Edited November 30, 2012 by liuzhou (log)

[rotuts]

Duck in Two Courses: from Madeleine Kamman on a PBS show she had from a million years ago:

bone out the breast(s) leaving the skin on. tease out the tendon on the smaller muscle. score the skin.

bone out the two legs, make sure you get the 'oyster'

oven at 450 place the two leg/thighs on a rack over a little water. roast for almost 1 hour. you need the water so the fat that drips down does not burn. for the last 5 - 10 min glaze with quality marmalade. note you can add salt if you like early on.

this is course 2

course 1: while the duck legs are in the over, sear the duck breasts skin side down until golden, flip, turn down the heat until you get 'rare'

the skin is different on each method.

you can roast the carcass and then make stock and save all the fat which you freeze and scoop out like ice-cream for potatoes etc.

Edited November 30, 2012 by rotuts (log)

[Baselerd]

If its good quality duck, and fresh, I would recommend dry aging it for a week in the fridge. Makes it so much better.

[Crouton]

What kind of duck? Some of the farm raised birds are incredibly fatty, while wild ducks are lean. Makes a big difference in how to cook.

I would imagine it's farm raised since as far as I know it's illegal to sell wildlife.

[Crouton]

If its good quality duck, and fresh, I would recommend dry aging it for a week in the fridge. Makes it so much better.

Hmmmm, that I'm not sure. It was frozen when I purchased it and has been in my deep freezer for at least 5 months. I'm not sure how "fresh" that would leave it. But I will definitely remember that. thanks.

[heidih]

There are some good suggestions given to another "first timer" in this topic

[Hassouni]

I roasted my first duck for Thanksgiving, and it was far too fatty, it seriously hampered access to the meat. If I had to go it again, I'd go slower and lower to render more of it out

[DTBarton]

Looks like plenty of good ideas in this thread and the linked thread. I want to emphasize a couple of things that will help to prevent trashing your oven when roasting a duck.

Use a deep roasing pan. I like to butterfy the duck so it lays flat, skin side up (or cut it in half if that fits your pan better). Definitely pour off the rendered fat periodically while the bird roasts, if you don't it ends up all over the inside of the oven. Putting water in the pan will prevent some of this, but then you don't have the beautiful fat to use to roast potatoes

[Crouton]

Looks like plenty of good ideas in this thread and the linked thread. I want to emphasize a couple of things that will help to prevent trashing your oven when roasting a duck.

Use a deep roasing pan. I like to butterfy the duck so it lays flat, skin side up (or cut it in half if that fits your pan better). Definitely pour off the rendered fat periodically while the bird roasts, if you don't it ends up all over the inside of the oven. Putting water in the pan will prevent some of this, but then you don't have the beautiful fat to use to roast potatoes

Thanks for the tips. If I add water to the roasting pan, could I not boil that off before freezing? Assuming I wouldn't be making potatoes with the dish... but now I'm considering potatoes with the dish 'cause that sounds wonderful.

[budrichard]

The OP said "I picked up a whole frozen Duck at Publix"!

These ducks I have found are brought to market at the lowest possible price point and range in quality. Freezing seems to make them compress slightly but they can be useful two different ways. As usual the commercial market has taken a good thing and made somthing that at times is a pale shadow of its former self. I try to purchase my ducks from local farmers or at a live poultry establishment.

First is to simply slow roast with aromatics inside until about 160F and letting rest, tented in foil for about 15-20 minutes. They can range from inedible almost to quite good, its' really a 'pig in a poke' with these commercial ducks.

Secondly, you can deconstruct, first skin and render the fat, saving both. The cracklings go good on a salad or with Crystal Hot Sauce. the fat use for frying french fries.

The breasts can be lightly sautéed until rare and served with a sauce made from stock made with the carcass. Leg/Thighs can be slow roasted for duck rilletts. Again the quality of the breasts is variable. Usually duck breasts for this application are from aged larger ducks.

Good luck!-Dick

[Crouton]

The OP said "I picked up a whole frozen Duck at Publix"!

These ducks I have found are brought to market at the lowest possible price point and range in quality. Freezing seems to make them compress slightly but they can be useful two different ways. As usual the commercial market has taken a good thing and made somthing that at times is a pale shadow of its former self. I try to purchase my ducks from local farmers or at a live poultry establishment.

First is to simply slow roast with aromatics inside until about 160F and letting rest, tented in foil for about 15-20 minutes. They can range from inedible almost to quite good, its' really a 'pig in a poke' with these commercial ducks.

Secondly, you can deconstruct, first skin and render the fat, saving both. The cracklings go good on a salad or with Crystal Hot Sauce. the fat use for frying french fries.

The breasts can be lightly sautéed until rare and served with a sauce made from stock made with the carcass. Leg/Thighs can be slow roasted for duck rilletts. Again the quality of the breasts is variable. Usually duck breasts for this application are from aged larger ducks.

Good luck!-Dick

You mentioned roasting the duck until the internal temp reaches 160F. I notice most recipes that deal with just the breast recommend aiming for medium rare which is far less than 160F. I assume that if you roast the whole duck then you you can't aim for medium rare breasts b/c the legs/thighs would be undercooked?

[HowardLi]

Peking duck, of course.

[rotuts]

no matter what you do with your first duck, if its even remotely OK ( based on ConAgraEnomics ),

your second one will be 10 times better!

My first was the Kamman two course only because i saw how to do it and realized it was easy.

full disclosure: She may have said save the fat etc etc, but of course I dumped it.

[OliverB]

I'd just roast it. Prick the skin all over with a needle or fork, so the fat can run out. Roast it following any of the many recipes online.

Don't invite too many people, despite the size, there's not that much meat on them. Made one two or three years ago and it had about the amount of meat you'd get from a chicken, despite being twice as big. I think I had orange pieces in the roasting pan. If you have a pan with a grid to raise it, use it, otherwise use some veg or orange underneath to lift it out of the fat bath. And yes, keep the fat, probably the best thing about a duck :-)

[Keith_W]

Make 8 treasure duck.

- Tunnel bone the duck (i.e. remove the skeleton from the neck and bottom cavity, leaving the meat and skin intact). Remove as much fat as you can and save for a different use.

- Make the stuffing (glutinous rice, chinese sausage, ham, etc)

- Stuff the duck and sew the openings closed, then glaze the duck.

- Traditional 8 treasure duck is steamed and then fried (very hard to do unless you have a huge fryer and a huge frying basket). Here it is roasted.

[Heartsurgeon]

SAVE ALL THE DUCK FAT!!!!

if pork is the King of Fats, duck is the Queen of fats.

fat is both the wonder and the horror of duck.

the fat can be rendered, and used to saute fingerling potatoes (yumm), confit duck, turkey or chicken parts (basically poaching the meat in duck fat).

read alton brown's approach to duck.

read up on how peking duck is made.

basically, multi-stage cooking to address rendering the copious amounts of subcutaneous fat from the duck, crisping the skin, and cooking (but not over cooking) the breast meat.

me personally, I like to skin the duck, grind the skin/fat up and render the all the fat, debone the duck, (freeze the carcass for later browning and making duck stock once I have more bones), bag the breast meat with some of the duck fat and cook it sous vide, bag the legs/thighs with duck fat and sous vide them separately.

[ChrisTaylor]

Simple dry rub and hot smoke.

[ElainaA]

We had duck for Thanksgiving, since none of my family really likes turkey. I use Julia Child's method from The Way to Cook (also in Julia Child and Company) for roast duck with cracklings ( although I omit the cracklings). You roast the whole duck for 30 minutes at 350. Then dismantle it - removing the breast meat ( taking off skin and fat) and the thighs and legs, separating them. The breast meat is sliced and poached in wine. The legs and thighs are coated in mustard, rolled in fresh bread crumbs and roasted at 400 for about 25 -30 minutes. She tells you to slice the skin and fat that you have removed and roast it as well for cracklings. Even I found that too fatty the first time I made this so I have omitted that step since, but the rest is wonderful.

[janeer]

We had duck for Thanksgiving, since none of my family really likes turkey. I use Julia Child's method from The Way to Cook (also in Julia Child and Company) for roast duck with cracklings ( although I omit the cracklings). You roast the whole duck for 30 minutes at 350. Then dismantle it - removing the breast meat ( taking off skin and fat) and the thighs and legs, separating them. The breast meat is sliced and poached in wine. The legs and thighs are coated in mustard, rolled in fresh bread crumbs and roasted at 400 for about 25 -30 minutes. She tells you to slice the skin and fat that you have removed and roast it as well for cracklings. Even I found that too fatty the first time I made this so I have omitted that step since, but the rest is wonderful.

This method from Julia Child and Company is sensational. I disagree that the cracklings are too fatty if cooked right, I think the whole ensemble is perfection. For years and years I made this on New Year's, I highly recommend it.

[Broken English]

Buy Lucky Peach issue 5.

Follow recipe for Ssam Bar Duck.