cooking a whole duck

wyebird

My OH cooks a lovely duck . Puts an orange in the middle, rubs the skin with salt, cooks it slowly at first and then a bit higher to crisp the skin....always cooks it when I have been working away . Would ask him for more information but he is asleep in the chair :rotfl:

Had duck curry last night in Thai resturant...with tomotoes and peppers. Massaaman sauce. V Nice

Pink.

Hi Mindy,

We have an older thread on cooking a whole duck that should help so I've merged your thread with it to keep all the suggestions together.

Pink

liney

I bought a reduced duck today for £3! and wanted to make something abit special with it. Any ideas very welcome.

I will add i have only cooked duck in portions before, not whole, and i understand lots of fat will run out?

hot.chick

I'd season it and roast it on a wire rack to let all the fat drain off, then if you want to make it a bit special you could give the option of a cherry or orange sauce?

We had duck this way for xmas and it was absolutly gorgeous!

Good luck let us know what u end up doing and how it turns out?

odds-n-sods

Roast it slowly on an medium heat - that will allow the most fat to melt. I'd roast it over a rack. Save the fat, strains any solid bits out and freeze it - then when you want duck fat for roast potatoes or to confit duck legs, you've got it. Serve it with fruit - it helps cut the fattiness of the skin, orange sauce/cherry sauce, or applesacue + bread stuffing will all do this. Alternatively, stuff the duck with a prune, apricot and bread stuffing.

4 oz pitted prunes
4 oz dried apricots
1/2 loaf bread, crumbed
2 tbsp fresh sage, or 2 tsp dried
salt + pepper to taste
1/2 onion

Chop the fruit and the onion. Just mix all this together with a little orange juice or water; you can add orange zest as well if you like. Stuff intothe bird and leave a little room for expansion. Roast as above.

mrs_metal

I did a Gary Rhodes honey roast duck recipe once, it was delicious and just melted in your mouth. It's been years since I did it but I think you pricked the skin, rubbed on salt, spooned lots of honey over it and cooked it on a wire rack in a roasting tin and then basted it in honey/fat mixture from the bottom of the tin every half hour, then every 15 minutes towards the end of the cooking. You needed to roast it very slowly over about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. He recomended half a duck per person as it's so tasty

(mine went a bit wrong and the skin went black but the meat inside was lovely)

ps the only reason I haven't cooked it again is I haven't had the time to spend 2 - 3 hours cooking but now I've got an oven that slow cooks I might see if I can work out a slow cook method

chivas

To get really good crispy skin, pour boiling water over the skin before you roast the duck, make sure it's properly dry before roasting too. If you're pricking the skin try to be sure not to go right through the skin - just the top layers...

Unless you are really going for the glazed thing rather than crispiness I wouldn't bother basting it as this allows so much heat to escape from the oven. Duck is so fatty that it should be pretty much self-basting anyway! I suppose you could do the glaze by cooking it for the first while without the glaze to let it really start crisping up, then add the glaze and turn down the heat a bit?

thriftmonster

Also it's worth pouring the fat off every 20-30 mins into a dish so that it doesn't smoke out the oven - just keep returning the duck back to the oven.

celticfc

My dad has given me a rather large frozen duck. Now I've never had duck before let alone cooked one. So I have to ask for some help. First, what's the best way to cook it, and secondly, what are the best ingredients to have with it to turn the frozen duck into a palatable meal for my wife 3 children and myself.

I've had a look on the BBC recipes page but the ingredients there are far too fancy for me. All I want is the best way to cook it to get it's full flavour out and what goes with it. Should I roast it and add other food therefore turning it into a typical sunday roast type dinner? I've never tasted it before so am looking forward to some help and suggestions.

piglet6

Roasting a Duck...

Ingredients
1 duck weighing 2kg/4.5lb
1 orange, halved

Method
1. Heat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas5.
2. Put the duck on a rack in a roasting tin and put the orange halves inside. Pierce the duck s skin with a skewer all over which lets the fat run out.
3. Roast in the oven for 80-90 minutes.
4. Allow to rest covered with foil for 15 minutes before carving.
5. Drain the fat from the juices and make gravy with them.
6. Serve with gravy, bread sauce, stuffing and bacon rolls.

Hope that helps.

If it is a very big duck, don't forget to take all the leftover meat off the bones when you have finished - I would use it in a stirfry with some veggies and serve with noodles (or rice if you prefer...;)).

Good luck!

Piglet