I decided to make a whole duck for NYE dinner. Farm duck, so fat & juicy. I know for sure we have some killer cooks here, so, what's your go-to duck recipe? I think I'd prefer a savory than sweet preparation but I'm open to all ideas.
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What's your go-to duck recipe?
- Thread starter 748rpilot
- Start date
I’m no help. But here’s what I thought of.
Ok, so this is a little complex but here ya go.
We use an oven safe pot for this.
Pre-heat oven to 350°
1 cup lemon juice
2 cups water or chicken broth
Season duck with salt and pepper (if duck is skinless, wrap in bacon)
3 cloves of roasted garlic, crushed
Couple Sprigs of Thyme
Couple pinches of rosemary
Add potatoes, carrots and celery or whatever you prefer.
Take 2 cups flower, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of sugar and 1 cup water, mix together to make dough. Wrap the "bread" around the outside of the pan and then put the lid on so it seals.
Cook for 2 hours.
Its amazing and our go to meal for most holidays.
Here is a picture from the recipe book
We use an oven safe pot for this.
Pre-heat oven to 350°
1 cup lemon juice
2 cups water or chicken broth
Season duck with salt and pepper (if duck is skinless, wrap in bacon)
3 cloves of roasted garlic, crushed
Couple Sprigs of Thyme
Couple pinches of rosemary
Add potatoes, carrots and celery or whatever you prefer.
Take 2 cups flower, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of sugar and 1 cup water, mix together to make dough. Wrap the "bread" around the outside of the pan and then put the lid on so it seals.
Cook for 2 hours.
Its amazing and our go to meal for most holidays.
Here is a picture from the recipe book
Me:
Skin on
Variety of seasonings depending on my mood, easy is brine for 24hrs in saltwater bath, clean 3gal bucket in fridge, weighted and covered. Remove and drain, allow to dry and reach room temp, finish pat dry any areas needed, prepare bag, salt, pepper, garlic, rub inside and out, slip in bag, vacuum bag, drop in sous vide weighted @130º for 24hrs, save the duck fat.
While this is happening, you can figure out how you want to prepare for the table, easiest is think roast. I prepare vegetables, carrots, potatoes and Dutch oven. To keep the duck and vegetables from drying out, you can season and cook vegetables in a skillet just enough that they are soft. You can cheat by microwaving them, I have and other than the time savings, no discernable difference on tenderness, just no color added.
Once the duck is finished and still warm, slit the bag and drain the rendered fat. Carefully nestle the whole duck in the Dutch oven, pile the vegetables in and around the duck, use part of the rendered duck fat to create a baste, use chicken stock and any additional seasoning you want to get the consistency you want, brush a generous coat on everything and toss covered in the oven for a bit to get to the desired doneness, me, I go straight to the broil portion. Once you are at the desire doneness, uncover and broil for color. Keep a generous coating of your baste on everything and remove when you get the desired look, if you want you can use a chef's torch to add color.
You can skip the whole oven/Dutch oven and take the whole duck and pregrilled vegetables to the grill, careful when rotating the duck, it will want to fall apart. It doesn't take long, few minutes per side to add color or smoke flavor, keep moist with your baste.
After either version, allow to rest while finishing salads or any other vegetables or breads. You can make a gravy with any unseasoned duck fat if desired.
It's a long drawn out process that will be destroyed in about 45 minutes to an hour of eating.
I plan to try the above method of sous vide and deep frying the whole duck like a turkey, just concerned about keeping it together. I saw a wire wrap that looked promising. I could probably use butchers twine to make my wrap. I will try it out sometime and report back.
Second favorite way only requires the breast, legs and drums. Prep other sides for fajitas, warm tortillas, breast laying flat, slice horizontally into 3rds, legs and drums can be left whole unless they are really thick, then halves. Grille 3-4 minutes over a hot fire on each "side", when done, layout on a platter, lightly season with fajita seasoning, flip, lightly season the other side and cover to rest. They will appear rare/medium rare at the start of the rest. Once you have the sides plated, tortillas ready, slice and serve like regular fajitas.
Skin on
Variety of seasonings depending on my mood, easy is brine for 24hrs in saltwater bath, clean 3gal bucket in fridge, weighted and covered. Remove and drain, allow to dry and reach room temp, finish pat dry any areas needed, prepare bag, salt, pepper, garlic, rub inside and out, slip in bag, vacuum bag, drop in sous vide weighted @130º for 24hrs, save the duck fat.
While this is happening, you can figure out how you want to prepare for the table, easiest is think roast. I prepare vegetables, carrots, potatoes and Dutch oven. To keep the duck and vegetables from drying out, you can season and cook vegetables in a skillet just enough that they are soft. You can cheat by microwaving them, I have and other than the time savings, no discernable difference on tenderness, just no color added.
Once the duck is finished and still warm, slit the bag and drain the rendered fat. Carefully nestle the whole duck in the Dutch oven, pile the vegetables in and around the duck, use part of the rendered duck fat to create a baste, use chicken stock and any additional seasoning you want to get the consistency you want, brush a generous coat on everything and toss covered in the oven for a bit to get to the desired doneness, me, I go straight to the broil portion. Once you are at the desire doneness, uncover and broil for color. Keep a generous coating of your baste on everything and remove when you get the desired look, if you want you can use a chef's torch to add color.
You can skip the whole oven/Dutch oven and take the whole duck and pregrilled vegetables to the grill, careful when rotating the duck, it will want to fall apart. It doesn't take long, few minutes per side to add color or smoke flavor, keep moist with your baste.
After either version, allow to rest while finishing salads or any other vegetables or breads. You can make a gravy with any unseasoned duck fat if desired.
It's a long drawn out process that will be destroyed in about 45 minutes to an hour of eating.
I plan to try the above method of sous vide and deep frying the whole duck like a turkey, just concerned about keeping it together. I saw a wire wrap that looked promising. I could probably use butchers twine to make my wrap. I will try it out sometime and report back.
Second favorite way only requires the breast, legs and drums. Prep other sides for fajitas, warm tortillas, breast laying flat, slice horizontally into 3rds, legs and drums can be left whole unless they are really thick, then halves. Grille 3-4 minutes over a hot fire on each "side", when done, layout on a platter, lightly season with fajita seasoning, flip, lightly season the other side and cover to rest. They will appear rare/medium rare at the start of the rest. Once you have the sides plated, tortillas ready, slice and serve like regular fajitas.
I do orange duck.
Stuff with wild rice not with bread.
If I’m feeling motivated, I do it on a spit in front of the fire. Or just in the oven. About 350 and keep basting it with orange sauce.
Generally put a coating of Chinese hot oil on it before cooking. And rub it down with spices, particularly Chinese five spice Asian spice and hot ground chili pepper. But use your imagination.
A lot of ducks come with a packet of orange sauce, which is really good. But as your duck is farm raised, it probably doesn’t. So use marmalade, but mix the marmalade with honey or maple syrup or molasses. Also add soy sauce to your orange mix to dilute it down some.
If you want to get creative with the stuffing, add some mushrooms onions and sweet bell peppers. I use uncle Ben’s Wild rice, but I mix in a lot of regular uncle Ben’s to kind of dilute the spice and base. For the stuffing, I cook it only part way so that it’s still somewhat firm then stuff the cavity full and tie off the fat and the legs.
The rest of the rice I cook normally on the stove and serve it with
After the meal, if there’s enough left, you can make really good duck soup from the carcass. Or duck tacos are absolutely incredible. Just take all the meat off the bones Put in some taco spice and sauté. And you will have the best tacos you’ve ever had.
Hope this helps!
Cheers!
Stuff with wild rice not with bread.
If I’m feeling motivated, I do it on a spit in front of the fire. Or just in the oven. About 350 and keep basting it with orange sauce.
Generally put a coating of Chinese hot oil on it before cooking. And rub it down with spices, particularly Chinese five spice Asian spice and hot ground chili pepper. But use your imagination.
A lot of ducks come with a packet of orange sauce, which is really good. But as your duck is farm raised, it probably doesn’t. So use marmalade, but mix the marmalade with honey or maple syrup or molasses. Also add soy sauce to your orange mix to dilute it down some.
If you want to get creative with the stuffing, add some mushrooms onions and sweet bell peppers. I use uncle Ben’s Wild rice, but I mix in a lot of regular uncle Ben’s to kind of dilute the spice and base. For the stuffing, I cook it only part way so that it’s still somewhat firm then stuff the cavity full and tie off the fat and the legs.
The rest of the rice I cook normally on the stove and serve it with
After the meal, if there’s enough left, you can make really good duck soup from the carcass. Or duck tacos are absolutely incredible. Just take all the meat off the bones Put in some taco spice and sauté. And you will have the best tacos you’ve ever had.
Hope this helps!
Cheers!
By the way, if you use the right spices, including soy sauce, you end up with a hot sweet combination, which is just amazing with duck.
It’s probably a little late to go shopping, but I’ll post some of the spices I like to use later.
It’s probably a little late to go shopping, but I’ll post some of the spices I like to use later.
Depending on the duck - and when in the year and where it’s taken - smallish ducks - stuff cavity with smoked sausage- whatever type you prefer . And mandarin oranges- baste outside with a butter salt pepper wild sage glaze- roast just like a chicken at 400 until done . Temp and time may differ depending on location - elevation oven age and make and whether or not the duck being done at an exact time is crucial.
Pluck the duck.
Pin it to a piece of Corplast.
Set in sun for 3 days.
Throw away the duck and eat the Corplast.
Pin it to a piece of Corplast.
Set in sun for 3 days.
Throw away the duck and eat the Corplast.
Don't suppose you have a recipe name or link? The ingredients sound nice and it's a non-asian theme, which is what I'm looking for this time around.
I'm curious about cooking it in the Dutch oven; I understand farm duck to be really fatty. Would this cooking method end up essentially braising the duck in its own fat? Perhaps that's the point...? Most recipes call for a roasting pan and rack.
Also just a general question, I see many recipes say to leave the duck uncovered in the fridge overnight to get a really nice crispy roasted skin. Is that super necessary? I was thinking to start roasting at 425 to render the fat and crisp the skin, then drop it to 350 after 15 minutes or so.
Thanks guys, we've got some solid options here!
Little after action report from my ducking adventure.
Decided to follow my gut a little bit on the seasoning. I knew I didn't want a sweet duck because I made sweet sides. Figuring duck is dark meat, I went with thyme, garlic, hot paprika, Coriander, herbs de provence, salt, pepper and onion powder. Duck thawed overnight and placed on a rack and tray in the fridge for several hours.
First I blanched the duck in boiling water two minutes. This probably should have been an additional two minutes. After blanching and ice-bathing, I poked the skin all over with a knife. This should have been done prior to blanching to get a better fat render. Patted duck dry and stuffed the cavity with paper towels to dry.
Next I made a marinade of the aforementioned spices, minus the salt. Brushed the duck all over. After, salted the duck with 16 gr kosher sea salt, returned to fridge for a few hours.
I think this entire process should have been completed 24 hrs prior.
Before cooking, cavity was stuffed with 8 to 10 thyme sprigs, 3 gloves of roasted garlic, 4 cloves raw garlic, halved. Closed flap and tied legs. Preheat oven to 450.
Roasted duck for 25 minutes breast side up. Oven set to 350, cooked an additional 35 minutes. Removed duck from oven, poured off fat, flipped duck breast side down. Cooked 35 minutes. Removed duck, flipped again (breast side up), poured off fat. Roasted a further 10 minutes, poured off fat.
At this point, the breasts tested 155 degrees but the skin was still fatty and not crisp. Returned oven to 450, roasted breast side up additional 10 minutes. Breasts tested 173 degrees so I pulled the bird even though the beast skin was still fatty. Rest 15 minutes.
I did a really poor job carving the duck. My knives are in dire need of a sharpening and I didn't do a good job of finding and riding the ribs, nor finding and separating the joints. I went back and got some extra trim off it, but I'll be making stock from the carcass anyway. Takeaway here is to have properly maintained tools, and proper tools. And maybe some more practice. I also found that I failed to remove two organs
that were stuck wayyy up the cavity. Whoops.
As for eating, the flavor of the meat was actually pretty nice and within spitting distance of what I was looking for. Next time I'd maybe up the spices, the duck seems to handle them well. The skin, while not crispy, was still edible; it wasn't a gelatinous chewy mess.
Key takeaways: pierce skin before blanching, blanch longer (4 minutes?), blanch and dry brine a day ahead. Season an hour or two before cooking. I'm not sure if all the flipping of the bird is really required.
All in all, I'm definitely happy I gave it a try and did something different than the beef and lamb I normally eat. I'll be giving it another shot, and lucky for me I bought two birds. I barely even eat chicken so this was a fair bit out of my comfort zone.
Happy New Years!
Decided to follow my gut a little bit on the seasoning. I knew I didn't want a sweet duck because I made sweet sides. Figuring duck is dark meat, I went with thyme, garlic, hot paprika, Coriander, herbs de provence, salt, pepper and onion powder. Duck thawed overnight and placed on a rack and tray in the fridge for several hours.
First I blanched the duck in boiling water two minutes. This probably should have been an additional two minutes. After blanching and ice-bathing, I poked the skin all over with a knife. This should have been done prior to blanching to get a better fat render. Patted duck dry and stuffed the cavity with paper towels to dry.
Next I made a marinade of the aforementioned spices, minus the salt. Brushed the duck all over. After, salted the duck with 16 gr kosher sea salt, returned to fridge for a few hours.
I think this entire process should have been completed 24 hrs prior.
Before cooking, cavity was stuffed with 8 to 10 thyme sprigs, 3 gloves of roasted garlic, 4 cloves raw garlic, halved. Closed flap and tied legs. Preheat oven to 450.
Roasted duck for 25 minutes breast side up. Oven set to 350, cooked an additional 35 minutes. Removed duck from oven, poured off fat, flipped duck breast side down. Cooked 35 minutes. Removed duck, flipped again (breast side up), poured off fat. Roasted a further 10 minutes, poured off fat.
At this point, the breasts tested 155 degrees but the skin was still fatty and not crisp. Returned oven to 450, roasted breast side up additional 10 minutes. Breasts tested 173 degrees so I pulled the bird even though the beast skin was still fatty. Rest 15 minutes.
I did a really poor job carving the duck. My knives are in dire need of a sharpening and I didn't do a good job of finding and riding the ribs, nor finding and separating the joints. I went back and got some extra trim off it, but I'll be making stock from the carcass anyway. Takeaway here is to have properly maintained tools, and proper tools. And maybe some more practice. I also found that I failed to remove two organs
that were stuck wayyy up the cavity. Whoops.As for eating, the flavor of the meat was actually pretty nice and within spitting distance of what I was looking for. Next time I'd maybe up the spices, the duck seems to handle them well. The skin, while not crispy, was still edible; it wasn't a gelatinous chewy mess.
Key takeaways: pierce skin before blanching, blanch longer (4 minutes?), blanch and dry brine a day ahead. Season an hour or two before cooking. I'm not sure if all the flipping of the bird is really required.
All in all, I'm definitely happy I gave it a try and did something different than the beef and lamb I normally eat. I'll be giving it another shot, and lucky for me I bought two birds. I barely even eat chicken so this was a fair bit out of my comfort zone.
Happy New Years!
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