cooking a whole duck

thriftlady_2

I didn't, but a sprinkle of salt wouldn't go amiss.

Penelope_Penguin

kemo_2002 wrote: »

Hi, i love aromatic duck from the chinese, so ive brought a whole duck (gibelts and all!)

Hope you enjoyed it As this has fallen from the front page of OS, I'll add it to the exisitng thread on cooking a whole duck.

Penny. x

kemo_2002

ok, making the duck tonight? but how long do i cook it for???

craftynutters

Got a duck from asda today £5 but no idea how to cook it apart from stick it in the oven any suggestions for good recipes anybody?

Pink.

Hi craftynutters,

This thread has lots of advice and recipes for cooking a duck that should help:

cooking a whole duck

I'll add your thread to that one later to keep the suggestions together.

Pink

blissfulbabe

I started cooking duck this year, after finding one for £1.99 - now my kids prefer it to chicken, but I only buy it when it's on offer.

I tend to cook it one of two ways (both based on Nigella's method). For a Sunday roast (or when I've run out of duck fat for my roasties!) I cover the duck with water and simmer gently (well, Nigella says to simmer gently, I actually use the pressure cooker). When the duck is mostly, or all cooked, I finish it in the oven on a high heat - voila, crispy on the outside, meltingly soft meat plus fat for roasties and duck stock for soup the next day, with the scraps off the carcass.

The family favourite is to cook the duck in the pressure cooker but add ginger, garlic, soy sauce, cinnamon star anise, five-spice, a dried chilli and an onion to the water. When the duck is cooked and cooled I rip into joints and roast it on a high heat - and then we have 'chinese' crispy duck, served with chinese pancakes, spring onions, cucumber and hoisin sauce. By ripping the duck rather than cutting it you increase the number of extra crispy bits. What's left over goes into a stir fry later in the week. This recipe also works beautifully with boneless breast of lamb (which is much cheaper!).

Although it sounds a bit of faff precooking the duck I find it much easier - I sometimes precook the duck on the weekend and finish it off on the night we're going to eat it because I can get home from work, throw it in the oven and deliver a tasty, stressfree supper in forty minutes!

Kimitatsu

We put oranges and lemons in the cavity and then roast on a wire tray (in a roasting dish) in the oven. That way all of the fat drains off leaving the duck nice and crispy.

We do goose that way too and then store the fat for doing potatoes later :beer:

Amanda65

Hi all

Have pulled a frozen duck out of the freezer that I bought earlier in the year for half price (2kg duck and it cost £4.50 :j).

I'm planning on roasting it tomorrow for lunch and am going to use a method Ed Baines showed on TV where you boil it first then roast so it's not really fatty. What I don't know though is how to serve it. Would you just do your normal roast pots, veggies and gravy or should I do some sort of sauce instead of the gravy ?

sooty&sweep

Hi

I'd make sure when you put in the oven to roast that you put it on a trivet so that the fat drips away.

You can use the fat to make great roast potatoes. Just spoon off some of the fat into your potatoes dish.

Whatever veg you've got.

In terms of gravy / sauce you could make gravy if you get some juices off the duck, although if memory serves you often don't get much once you've taken all the fat away.

Have you got the giblets etc for thw duck ? If so use that to make a stock as a base to a gravy.

Jen

purpleivy

We like sage and onion stuffing with duck, I think it's even what you're meant to have. We don't go for orange sauce though. We're having roast duck tomorrow.