WHAT THE DUCK DO I DO WITH THIS BIRD?

So I've decided to roast a duck for christmas this year, only problem is I've never cooked a duck before:scratchhead:
Anybody care to share their favorite recipes, side dish suggestions, etc...?


Mahalo,
Mikey

One thing you'll need to do is prick the skin to help the fat render out. It's super fatty compared to most birds. One of my favourite sauces with duck is a combo of maple cranberry gastrique and demi it cuts the fattiness of duck incredibly

Save the fat!

Mikey,

Do you have access to a Chinese market where you can get things like bean sauce, thin soy sauce, black soy sauce and Shao Hsing rice cooking wine?

First you start with a 12 ga and some dekes...

For domestic birds I separate them to have the best flavor. Render the fat off the breasts and they're almost done. A little warm heat (at catering gig I put them in plate warmer for a little while) then sear. They taste best at rare to med rare. Look for 128 -130F. Confit the legs.

Natural side dishes include rice, wild rice, and corn based dishes.

I also enjoy the birds available from my local Asian market. Whole, slightly smoked(?), nice brown finish. Not sure how they are prepared but @10/bird to go I don't need to know.

For whole roasted, rise and dry, take wing tips off, cut off the ass and extra fat from inside thighs. Save neck skin.

Mix orange juice with a little water and pour over the bird, add fresh thyme, salt and pepper, also salt the cavity inside and add aromatics if desired.

Cook at 350 for 3 hours, after 1 hour flip duck upside down and place neck skin under breast so it doesn't stick or burn. After 1.5 hours flip again, and finish until golden brown.

If you twist. Leg it should turn easily, if not it's not fully done.

With saved fat turn into a roux for gravy of your choice.

Thank you gentlemen, some good info here. I had completely forgot about rendering the fat on the breasts. I seem to remember hearing somewhere about pan searing the bird to help render the fat before roasting. Is that a thing, or just some foodie sounding off?

Mahalo,
Mikey

Hey there, Mikey!

Here in Austria/Europe that would be a classic Xmas dish: oven-roasted duck with red cabbage and potatoe dumplings and sweet chestnuts. Send me a PM if you want a recipe. I could send or post one, if you like!

That sounds fantastic

I would loosen as much of the skin as you can, you may have to cut some of the connective tissue with a knife or scissors. Put the duck on a rack in a roasting pan add inch or two of water, cover and steam for about 20 min. Put the whole thing in the fridge over night without the cover so the skin dries out and the duck fat solidifies (will yield about a pound of duck fat floating on top of the water.) Next day roast to 140 to165. You'll have a tasty roasted duck with very crispy skin. Use what ever herbs and spices you like.

Here's some recipes for Austrian-style Christmas duck (maybe some of the cooks can give further advice or improvements):


OVEN-ROASTED CHRISTMAS DUCK

Ingredients

1

Duck



Salt, Pepper, (Rosemary, Thyme, Marjoram), crushed roasted coriander seeds if you like

0,38 Liter

Boiling water

Preparation

Work: 10 Min. / Difficulty: easy

Preheat your oven to 200°C / 390°F (upper and lower heat or top+bottom, however you say that; do not use circulating air).

Wash the prepared duck (no innards, no rump/parson’s nose) and rub it dry with paper towel. Rub the spices and salt and pepper in, inside and out. If you like, you can fill the duck with (approx.. 2) halved apples and/or dried plums/prunes and some orange zest.

Put into a baking tray with the breast side down, pour the boiling water into the tray and put into the oven for approx.. 2 hours. Pour some of the juices/fat over the whole duck every 15-20 minutes. Punch the duck skin with a needle every now and then so that the fat can run out.



After 2 hours take the baking tray out of the oven, put the duck onto a cooking grate back in the oven again, place the baking tray with all the juices under it, and let it roast for another 30 minutes. Do not pour any liquids over the duck now. You want the skin to get crusty! Right at the beginning you can sprinkle a little cold water over the duck, but for the remaining time, no more liquids. 15 minutes before the end you can brush with a little honey if you like (does not necessarily have to be, as you have sweet components in your side dishes).



Cooking time: approx.. 45 Minutes per kg (if not filled) or 60 Minutes per kg if stuffed with apples etc.



You can pour the collected juices into a gravy boat (you can pour some of the fat away, it will sit on top; the good bit of the juice is the dark juice, not the fat).



Serve with red cabbage, potatoe dumplings and caramelized sweet chestnut.

Try with some cranberry marmalade, if you can find some!



Alternative cooking method: 1 hour at 220°C / 430°F, then 8-9 hours at 80°C / 175°F





POTATO DUMPLINGS

Ingredients

1 kg

Potatoes (floury if available)

80 g

Butter, melted

1

Egg

200 g

Potatoe flour / potato starch



Salt, Pepper, Nutmeg

Preparation

Work: 20 Min. / Difficulty: easy

Cook the potatoes until soft. You can do that on the day before. Press them through a potatoe press or mash them with a fork or similar. Add the melted butter, 1 egg and the potato starch and mix.

Form balls between your hands (roll them), size is up to you, and let them simmer in salted water until they float on the surface.





RED CABBAGE

Ingredients

1 kg

Red cabbage

250 g

Apple, skinned

150 g

onions

150 g

butter

200 g

sugar

1/2 Liter

Red wine (dry) or 50/50 Red wine and fresh orange juice

1/4 Liter

Port wine

100 g

Red or black currant jelly; cranberry marmalade can be used as a substitute

0,2 Liter

Red wine vinegar



Spice bag: 2 bay leaves, 5 cloves, 5 Pimento seeds,5 juniper berries and 20 pepper corns



Salt

Preparation

Work: 45 Min. / Difficulty: normal

Cut the stalks out of the red cabbage, then cut into thin stripes with a 240-270mm wa-gyuto with Mikey handle. Dice apple(s) and onion(s) and roast in butter on low heat until soft and tender.

Caramelize 150g of sugar in a big pot. Add Red wine and orange juice (if applicable) and port wine and simmer until the sugar has melted again. Add the sliced red cabbage and vinegar and stir for some minutes. Add salt and spice bag. Add star anise and/or fresh ginger to your liking. Put the lid on and stew. Stir from time to time. Add red wine when the liquid evaporates. After 30 minutes, ad dapple-onion-butter mix and stir well. Take care the cabbage doesn’t scorch!



Taste and add red wine vinegar, fruit jelly, salt, etc. to your taste. If there is too much liquid, let it stew without the lid until the liquid evaporates. When ready, the red cabbage should have a clear structure, and a nice sweet-sour balance.



CARAMELIZED SWEET CHESTNUT

Ingredients

6-8 chestnuts per person, cooked/baked and ready to eat (you can find them vacuum-packed maybe)

sugar

butter

honey



Preparation

In a heavy pan, melt the sugar and let it caramelize. Remove from heat. Add butter and chestnuts, stir well. Add a good table spoon of honey. Enjoy!

anything sweet works good with the fattiness of the duck, make sure to render out that fat and save it, some of the best stuff for cooking with besides bacon fat, bing cherry glace is my favorite

There are (at least) two schools of thought on cooking a duck.

One is to treat it like poultry - a turkey with dark meat. This is a traditional take on duck. Cook it to death and then finish even higher to crisp the skin. The cremated remains will ensure that no one in your dinner party will ever want to eat duck again.

The other school of thought will result in a product that's as tender as a filet and excellent flavor. Gently cook breasts to 128-130F. Do something else (confit) with the legs. Cooked whole, the legs will be a bloody mess if the breasts are proper. Or the breast will taste like shoes if the legs are done. Wings are best used for stock.

Some of the old timers here will remember the chef showdown show when one of our own was in finals with a young lady from one of the stan countries. For the entre he rendered duck breasts perfectly and produced what looked like excellent duck. She seared the breasts on high, rendering almost no fat, and produced what the judges termed "inedible". But she was the hope and future....

Big fan of air drying the bird if you're going to roast it whole . I think you guys changed my Christmas menu.

Kitchenchem said:

I would loosen as much of the skin as you can, you may have to cut some of the connective tissue with a knife or scissors. Put the duck on a rack in a roasting pan add inch or two of water, cover and steam for about 20 min. Put the whole thing in the fridge over night without the cover so the skin dries out and the duck fat solidifies (will yield about a pound of duck fat floating on top of the water.) Next day roast to 140 to165. You'll have a tasty roasted duck with very crispy skin. Use what ever herbs and spices you like.

Click to expand...

Thank you all, I think this is going to be fun.:knife:

Service and patina pics would be great!

Any pics?

There was just two of us for Thanksgiving so I did this:

- Cooked the breasts at 135 F in an immersion circulator and crisped the skin up in a pan before serving. You can just cook them in a pan if you don't have the machine.

- Did a quick cure of salt, black pepper, and herbs de provence for the legs, then roasted in a 325 F oven for 2 hr and 15 min.

- Used the carcass, wings, and backbone for stock to make the ubiquitous Thanksgiving gravy.

Turned out really well.

Ok, I'm calling the duck a qualified success. I say qualified because I didn't git the skin crispy. Basically I chickened out at the end, worried about over cooking the breasts. The meat came out great though, and go plenty of drippings for gravy and a small tub of duck fat:cheffry:

Be well,
Mikey

Duck Fat anything = AWESOME!

sous vide it if you have a machine. confit it then pan sear.

Mr. Boner - May I call you Dick?

There's a good chance that the duck in question, the Christmas Duck, from last Christmas, 2014, has already been cooked.

A good rule of thumb is to let 4 month old thread rest in peace. Some of the less tolerant members find it annoying to have their "what's new" filled with what could be considered drivel. Other people might think you're just inflating your post count to sell something.

Another good rule of thumb is to check on threads that you've posted to. Do you?

Regards,

Dave