Duck Recipe

I've never cooked duck before. Would someone be willing to share a tried and true recipe that doesn't require any specialized equipment (e.g. duck press)?

Getting a crisp skin, much of the fat rendered out, and the legs adequately cooked without overcooking the breast is always a challenge. Following the method of Steingarten, I use a rotisserie (sorry if this falls into the category of specialized equipment). Simply season the duck well inside and out with salt and pepper. Prick the skin everywhere, but don't penetrate into the meat. Place on the spit over heat and continue to prick the skin throughout the cooking process until the skin is crispy and the meat is cooked (I like 150-160F in the breast). I often baste the bird with a glaze during the last 30 minutes or so such as orange, apricot, or pomegranate.

Save the fat in the drip pan. All kinds of great uses.

Bill/SFNM

Thanks for your reply, Bill. I have only read The Man Who Ate Everything, but was immediately hooked into Steingarten--great source. Unfortunately, you are correct in assuming that a rotisserie would fall under specialized equipment for me. I wish I owned one, but the next culinary item I'm angling for is a Shun cleaver. Me thinks this seems like a reasonable b-day/X-mas gift.

Heidi

This is a recipe I've been using for years. It comes from a cook book by Louis Szathmary. (Are you old enough to remember his restaurant, The Bakery on Lincoln Ave.?)

It a bit of work, but it turns out well.

1 4 1/2- 5 lb Duck
1 peeled and chopped carrot
2 medium chopped celery stalks
1 medium chopped onion
1 bay leaf
3-4 black peppercorns
1-2 garlic cloves

Preheat the oven to 300-325F
Use a roasting pan with a tight fitting cover. Clean and remover the giblet packet and the big lump of fat from the cavity. Prick the skin all over, by try not to go dep enought to puncture the meat. Rub the duck inside and out with salt, pepper and a cut clove of garlic.Put half the vegetables and the other garlic clove in the cavity and put the lump of fat (or a3-4 tablespoons of lard or vegetable shortening if there isn't any duck fat) on the bottom of the reasting pan. put some of the vegables and 1 garlic clove in the cavity. Put the duck, breast down, on the fat and add about 1-2 inches of water and scatter the rest of the vegetables the pepercorns and bay leaf around the duck and fat pan and ut the duck on top of the fat. Cover and place in preheat ed oven.

After 2 hours take the roasting pan out of the oven and very carefully remove the duck and let in cool completely. When it's completely cold, with a very shapt knife, cut the duck in quarters--start with the back.

Plac the cold duck pieces ona slightly greast cooky sheet and return to a 425-450 F oven for about 15 -22 minutes. Before serving take off and discard the the wings.

cooking a duck is difficult because the legs and the breast need to be cooked to such drastically different degrees of doneness.

my advice to you would be to do what most restaurants do; butcher the duck and cook the various parts separately.

first, you'll need to cut the duck up. take the leg/thigh portions off, then cut off the breasts. the carcass and wings can be used to make a stock or a sauce.

with the legs, cure them first, then confit them. to do this, rub them well with coarse salt and cracked pepper, smear them with minced garlic, and some herbs. thyme and/or rosemary are nice. leave them this way in the fridge for a day or two. it's best if you can put them on a rack over a sheetpan or something so the juices that come out from the salt can drip away. then, put them in a oven-proof dish and submerge them under oil. bring the oil up to temp and them cook them in a slow oven (250) until they are falling-apart tender.

with the breast, you want to render the thick, fatty skin like bacon to get it crisp. it's nice to use a sautee pan over low heat. first, score the skin with a sharp knife, cutting a crosshatch pattern across it without cutting through to the mat. place the duck breasts skin side down and simply let all the fat cook out of the skin until it gets thinner and starts to crisp. this may take up to 20 minutes depending on how fatty your duck is. then turn the heat up to high, brown the skin and cook the meat to medium rare or whatever degree of doneness you desire.

with the carcass and wings, roast them in a hot (375) oven until they're nice and brown, then put them in a stock pot with some browned onions, carrot, celery, some whole peppercorns, bay leaves, and fresh thyme. fill this with water and bring to a boil, then cook slowly for a few hours to make a duck stock.

this stock can then be used to make a very nice sauce for your dish.


good luck....duck is a lovely thing when done well, but it's not super-easy to do well, as evidenced by the many restaurants who serve a fairly mediocre product.

Thanks Elakin and Jane for taking the time to post your advice and recipes for cooking duck. Yes, Jane I do remember The Bakery. Unfortunately, because I was too young to get there on my own, I never got to eat there. I understand it was a legendary restaurant.

I think I saw Ming Tsai inflate the skin with a bicycle pump, ostensibly to let the fat drain away so the skin can crisp more easily. Anyone ever tried this technique? Also, what is a good thing to do with duck fat? Do you just use it as you would butter in a savory dish? Sorry if this is an obvious question.

Heidi

HeidiHo wrote:Also, what is a good thing to do with duck fat? Do you just use it as you would butter in a savory dish? Sorry if this is an obvious question.

My two favorite uses of it lately have been to make my home fries in and to saute spinach, often with pecans. (I haven't been able to help with the other questions because I just cook the Paulina Market's smoked boneless duck breasts -- I haven't made an entire duck yet.) For the spinach, if you're including nuts (I imagine walnuts would work as well; I just love pecans), obviously you'd want to start those first and then add the spinach briefly after you just start to smell the nuts.

I don't know if a smoker or grill qualify as "special equipment" (they are required equipment around here), but here's my tale of finding and smoking a duck that you might find useful.

This is a recipe for duck breasts that's incredibly easy, requires no special equipment, and needs no sauce. I've been making it for years and never tire of it. It's from Paula Wolfert's "Cooking of Southwest France," which I've slightly adapted.

Duck Magrets
Broiled Duck Breasts

4 Servings

1 1/2 teaspoons shallots, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoon fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 teaspoon bay leaves, crumbled
1/4 teaspoon thyme leaves, crumbled
14 black peppercorns, lightly crushed
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
black pepper, freshly ground

1. 1 day before serving, trim off all excess fat from the duck breast. In a noncorrodible bowl combine the salt, shallots, parsley, bay leaf, thyme, peppercorns, and garlic.

2. Roll the duck breasts in the mixture and stack them, skin side down, in the bowl. Cover bowl with a towel or plastic wrap and let stand, refrigerated, 12-24 hours, turning breasts over once.

3. 30 minutes before serving, wipe or rinse the duck breass to remove excess seasonings and any liquid that may have exuded during the marinating time. Discard marinade and allow breasts to come to room temperature. Pat ducks dry.

4. To broil, set the broiler rack about 4 inches from heat. Score the skin and place duck breasts skin side down on broiler rack.

5. 8 or 9 minutes before serving, broil 1 minute in order to sear flesh side and melt excess skin-side fat from reflected heat. Turn breasts over and broil about 4 minutes longer. Breasts will "tighten up" and become thicker. With thumb and middle finger, pinch meat from under skin end to flesh side to test for doneness. If the flesh springs back quickly it is rare; if there is some "give" it is medium.

6. Transfer breasts to a carving board and let rest 1-2 minutes. To serve, thinly slice meat crosswise diagonally. Sprinkle with freshly ground pepper, then fan each magret out on an individual heated serving plate. Serve at once.

With duck fat, I like to make Potatoes Anna and I will also use it to saute pork chops. Adds a very nice flavor and although it sounds really unhealthy, it's lower in cholersterol than butter.

Last winter, I made a duck and andouille gumbo with much help from the gang here at LTH. It was a great gumbo. But, it was also a two day project.

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.ph ... duck+gumbo

Thanks to all who replied with your duck advice and recipes! This forum is so excellent; I find myself spending hours here!

Heidi

This is what we did for Thanksgiving:

Bought two ducks. Carefully removed the breast meat - you want to start cutting near the thigh so you don't cut the breast meat - once that border is breached it's not hard to cut out the boneless breast.

Set the breasts aside.

Roast the remaining bird at 475 for about an hour (got this concept from Zuni's roast chicken). We did it in terra cotta, glad Alton Brown convinced me to get a terra cotta rig to fit my oven, it's fantastic.

While the leg and thigh meat from the roasted bird WAS quite nice, we still turned it to liquid.

Using a 8-qt stockpot shaped (Kuhn-Rikon) pressure cooker, I first cooked just the back in about 4 cups of water, or just enough to cover that little bit. Pressure cooked for 20 minutes and naturally depressurized. Strained that, and did another bit of meat that liquid could cover, over and over till I was out of meat. Say 6 times. Last time onion, carrot and celery joined the meat.

The pressure cooker enabled me to make a duck coulis in about 6-8 hours.

Turkey Day

I reduced 1.25 cups red wine with a bit of reserved duck meat from broth making and a minced shallot or two, some thyme and black pepper, till it was reduced by three fourths. Then I added about 1/3 cup of the duck coulis, and whisked in a little duck fat.

We sauteed the scored duck breasts in a medium hot pan, about 6 minutes per side and served them with the Bordelaise sauce I made.

It was fantastic.

Did I waste a lot of duck meat on a sauce? I dunno, but we thought it was one of the best sauces we ever had, including several restaurant duck breast eatings. Nice ducky sauce.

Thanks to James Peterson's "Sauces" for advanced broth making and sauce making techniques.

Thanks to Alton Brown for terra cotta roasting and pressure cooking broth otherwise that duck coulis would have taken days, not hours.

Thanks to Judy Rodgers Zuni Cafe book for suggesting 475 for roasting. It sounds ridiculously high but it works nicely.

Thanks to someone here for suggesting I get the Zuni book.

We did it all again a week later but made a mushroom sauce with Maitake mushrooms (purchased from Mitsuwa). Yum!.

We still have two duck breasts vacuum sealed in the fridge, and two 4 oz canning jars of duck glace (the coulis reduced until it coats the back of the spoon). (Day after Thanksgiving went out and bought two more ducks).

Thanks to Jewel Osco for the Maple Leaf Farms Fresh Ducklings. Oh if they only weren't seasonal.....

It's been fun!

Nancy

I've had very good luck using this recipe from the "Mighty Duck" episode of Good Eats.

It doesn't require anything more specialized or rare than poultry shears, a colander, and a skillet - and it deals with the issue of removing fat and crisping skin perfectly.

(Edited to like, uh, add the link to the recipe. Whoops.)

Pete,

That mighy duck - how "done" was it? We were pretty fixated on rare to medium rare breast meat, which is why we did what we did.

Still, I wonder if I should try that recipe too.

Nancy

Nancy Sexton wrote:Pete,

That mighy duck - how "done" was it? We were pretty fixated on rare to medium rare breast meat, which is why we did what we did.

Still, I wonder if I should try that recipe too.

Nancy

That's a good point - the steaming sorta ruins any chance of getting it rare, even if it does remove most of the fat.

It was juicy with a slight amount of remaining fat and wonderfully crisp skin, but definitely cooked beyond rare.

YourPalWill wrote:Last winter, I made a duck and andouille gumbo with much help from the gang here at LTH. It was a great gumbo. But, it was also a two day project.

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.ph ... duck+gumbo

This sounds fantastic! This may have been answered upthread in that post, but since I understand nothing about deboning, I'll ask it anyway: do you ask for a fully deboned duck, or just a deboned breast and bony legs? Can you use just boneless breasts or would I be missing out on something?

Aldi is selling whole ducklings for $12 this week, and I was thinking of getting one for Thanksgiving this year, but I recall it being a real pain in the ass to carve for not much meat. If I'm wrong, or you have some really good carving advice, please share. I'm also thinking of buying a whole BBQ duck at a Chinese market, but will they cut the head off for me? I'm too squeamish to do it myself!

Thanks!

Are the Aldi ducklings fresh or previoiusly frozen?

Also, I'm SURE the place will cut off the head for you. Maybe call ahead and order it that way - so it's easy for them to give you good service without last minute scrambling. If they won't, don't ever go there again.

Nancy

Aldi's ducks are frozen, but they often have them: they're a pretty good source.

Mhays wrote:Aldi's ducks are frozen, but they often have them: they're a pretty good source.

I should mention that the $12 price is a special and the weight is 5lb.

Does anyone have a recipe which they would like to recommend for cooking a whole duck?

My favorite roast whole duck: start with a hot oven, prick the duck all over, pop in the oven and reduce heat to very low -- say 300 to 325. Cook slowly for several hours, re-pricking the skin occassionally. You can find any number of versions on the 'net. The overall effect is that the duck sort of "confits" itself. mmm.

I ordered two ducks for Thanksgiving, because that's how I roll. But I only have one roasting rack. I wondered if anyone has tried placing a jelly-roll pan on the bottom rack of the shelf and placing the ducks directly on the rack above it? Would that cause too much splatter?

I was going to go the lazy route and just throw 'em in the oven. Good to know it should be at a lower temp than high. What herbs & spices do you doll yours up with besides salt & pepper?

HI,

I once was at a home where they cooked a goose in a pan to small. The grease lapped over onto a live gas fire and created a fire ball that crisped people's eyebrows.

I would not consider using a jelly roll pan to catch the grease, because it is likely to spill.

Duck grease on the floor is pretty slippery. My Mom once dropped a roast duck on the floor along with pan holding the grease. She screamed, which caused everyone to run into the kitchen. My Dad and two sisters all landed on the floor. I was the only one who stopped short and did not join everyone on the floor.

Why not consider improvising a rack: maybe a bunch of cat food to tuna cans cut open at both ends, then lay they duck on top.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:
Why not consider improvising a rack: maybe a bunch of cat food to tuna cans cut open at both ends, then lay they duck on top.

Or maybe a rack made of carrots and celery and/or other root veggies (don't forget to throw in some potatoes for the duck fat treatment).

Perhaps a row of carrots and fingerlings. I saw wee colored 'taters the other day at Pete's...kinda sorry I didn't pick 'em up. Oooo...now that I think about it, we were just talking about how the only decent way to eat cauliflower was roasted. I wonder how that would do?

Also figuring on maybe mixing some 5-Spice with hoisin and "barbecuing" one. Donald with salt & pepper, Daffy with spice & sauce...? The plot thickens.

I made the chicken bread recipe referenced by GWiv in another thread - I'd think it'd work just as well, if not better for duck. Just score the breast so the fat comes out, and be sure the bread (we used a day-old baguette from Hewn Bakery) is completely covered by your birds. And mixing a little baking powder with your salt & pepper dry brined version can give you extra-crispy skin.

Yes, the thought plickens.

Oh my.

Rethinking my stance on not making biscuits.

I am doing duck for Thanksgiving. I am planning to sous vide the breasts and legs separately before finishing in a pan. I will probably do kecap manis marinade or some kind of honey soy sauce with 5 spice. I have roasted duck, but I found that you overcook the duck before the breast fat is full rendered. This way I can sous vide ahead of time and get that nice crisp skin at service.