Duck.

[Nate@Scarab]

Tips? Tricks? Never roasted one before - gonna give a 5lb bird a go tonight.

Plan:

-Disposable roasting pan+rack
-Pierce carcass all over to fat, but not to meat
-Truss/trim fat and extra skin, remove entrails
-Boiling water over bird, pat dry
-Salt/pepper liberally
-Roast at 425 30 mins, turn/pierce bird, 30 more mins with a turn and pierce, then 20 minutes, remove fat (and jar it!), glaze bird with a mix of honey/orange juice/molasses/cayenne, roast ten more minutes.

Am I missing anything? Definitely planning on some rocktacular stock after we've picked it clean (including organs), something I've never done before either.

[robin3mj]

Sounds like you’ve got it.
To be extra fancy, score the skin in little X shapes and stick a clove in a handful of them.
Put half an orange or lemon and half a small onion in the cavity.
Tilt the pan and use a baster to remove the fat each time you turn the bird, to avoid it burning on the bottom of the pan.
I go lower with temps and longer in the oven, but that’s just ATMO.

[HSTFixed]

That sounds like it'll turn out great to me. I've done ducks a few ways before. Sometimes I'll take it apart and do something with the legs (confit or braise) and then i'll sear/roast the breast quickly and serve it pink over something delicious, or make duck ham... A few years ago for thanksgiving I did a duck but I roasted it at 250 for 5 or 6 hours untill it was entirely cooked through and the skin was so incredibly brown and crispy and that was delicious. It depends whether or not you like pink duck. Some people don't.

Stock afterwards is a must. Add some tomatoes and/or tomato paste for color and depth, that's the only thing i'd do different from chicken stock.

oh and one more thing....Save the fat!!! roast some potatoes in it in a few days. You won't regret it.

hope it turns out well.

[JoB]

I'd take the breasts out, S&P, slowly brown them in a dry pan over the course of 15-20 min

cut off all the skin and fat, add 1/3 C water, render the fat.

Take wings and legs, S&P, sit for a couple days, then use the fat to confit in an oven.

I don't think you'll get all the fat out otherwise.

Alternative - pop it on a large can, do it beer can style. I bet that if you trim off enough skin, you can get most of the fat out/off.

[RIHans]

Duck...the new dark meat!

I love duck, and love cooks who cook duck. Low and slow to render would be my tip, after a 35+/- min blast of high heat to brown the skin...like any foul.
I put lots of fresh herds in the cavity, a bouquet garni the Frenchies would call it, and save the fat...Most inportant!

No, most important, Don't overcook! Pink is all good.

[summilux]

As JoB said, render the extra fat and/or save the fat that drips into the pan. It keeps very well.

For potato heaven:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Chop 4-6 potatoes into 1 inch cubes.
Saute cubes in a generous amount duck fat until potato cubes start to brown (a cast iron pan works best for this)
Salt to taste
Put sauteed potatoes in oven
Takes about 45 minutes to cook completely, stir occassionally

[Nate@Scarab]

Forgot to update with how this went! So, a shitty image:


I was unimpressed with my method. The duck seemed to retain a lot of fat under the skin - I don't think I pierced it quite enough (I was paranoid about drying out the meat). Needless to say, the other fowl consumers at the table were impressed. The flavor was quite good, especially with the glaze. I'm more stoked on the couple quarts of stock I made, as well as my pasta sauce-sized jar of rendered duck fat. Going to have to give some potatoes a shot - I've been frying my egg whites in it this week...so good.

[Too Tall]

Big Green Egg meets duck.

In order to put a stop the near constant harassment from one of my best pals. I made him a duck. It came out really @#% good and goes like this:
1. Pat dry Mr. Canard dry and heavily coat with Hawaiian salt made by old men + black pepper.
2. Truss the wings and legs to the body.
3. Heat honey and pour over the duck and work it.
4. Stuff the duck with as much fresh rosemary as you can get your hands on.
5. Stand the duck on a "sittin' chicken" < don't ask or a beer can sans beer.
6. Stabilize the Big Green Egg at 220F not more and don't peek for three or four hrs. When the leg bone falls out it's done.
Sweet jebus it is good. The honey / salt made for amazing skin and the rosemary infused everything. Unfortunately, the rendered fat burned and is not useable. Sad about that.

[Chad]

Duck...the new dark meat!

I love duck, and love cooks who cook duck. Low and slow to render would be my tip, after a 35+/- min blast of high heat to brown the skin...like any foul.
I put lots of fresh herds in the cavity, a bouquet garni the Frenchies would call it, and save the fat...Most inportant!

No, most important, Don't overcook! Pink is all good.

Amen on the Don't Overcook!

[Noteddy]

Big Green Egg meets duck.

In order to put a stop the near constant harassment from one of my best pals. I made him a duck. It came out really @#% good and goes like this:
1. Pat dry Mr. Canard dry and heavily coat with Hawaiian salt made by old men + black pepper.
2. Truss the wings and legs to the body.
3. Heat honey and pour over the duck and work it.
4. Stuff the duck with as much fresh rosemary as you can get your hands on.
5. Stand the duck on a "sittin' chicken" < don't ask or a beer can sans beer.
6. Stabilize the Big Green Egg at 220F not more and don't peek for three or four hrs. When the leg bone falls out it's done.
Sweet jebus it is good. The honey / salt made for amazing skin and the rosemary infused everything. Unfortunately, the rendered fat burned and is not useable. Sad about that.

That looks and sounds like the real deal. Beautiful work, sir. The skin looks like it would shatter like cheap crabon. You set the bar high.

[AJPM44]

As good if not better than potatoes in duck fat, roast some brussel sprouts in it.

[steve garro]

There are really two ways about this in my camp, unless you have the ability to go full Peking Duck.

I like to remove the breasts and lightly flour them and sear them crispy on the outside, and pink on the inside.
Eat.
Now, slow roast the rest, make a meal of that, and roast the bones for stock.

The other is to take my big dutch oven, and I have a platform with holes in it that actually came out of a Tamale steamer that I put the bird on, and roast it @ 300-325* until a leg bone comes cleanly out - also, clear liquids when pierced is a good sign - remember to give it a few on broil to crisp it up.
This also saves ALL the fat, stock and gelatin in the bottom - obviously save this, and after you roast the carcass and boil the bones and gibbets of meat and fat add this to it. Damn good stuff, goes for geese as well.

- Chew softly in case of birdshot, heh.........

- Garro.

[jitahs]

Full Peking duck...used to do that blowing up the ass end of he bird to separate the skin from meat. Read it somewhere.

Yeah buy duck, buy extra legs. Roast whole, render, SAVE.
Dry marinate legs.
Pack in pot with saved fat.
Confit the sucka.

Strain fat...thanks for the reminder. Got some in the frig somewhere for the brussels...

[dang]

On the piercing of the skin -- don't just poke it, make the incision at an oblique angle and run a paring knife or such between the skin and meat, so that you are making incisions of an inch or so through the fat.

After you do that, you can steam it before roasting -- Jaques Pepin has a video about doing this with a Turkey where the same principles apply.