Got a duck...what to do?

This is my wife's favorite duck dish. Not a recipe but this is what the restaurant did.

Remove the legs.

Debone the leg, keeping the skin intact as possible. Make a forcemeat from the leg meat. Stuff it back in the skin.

You could cook the breast intact or debone it.

At this point, either grill, pan sear or roast the breast and stuffed legs. Reassemble on the plate to resemble the original duck.

many different seasonings would work, the sample we ate was in a mediterranean seasoning style.

Phil

How about roasting and basting with tamarind, ginger, and honey and serving with a deglet noor date, bosc pear, almond chutney?

Hey oh

Is there a theme to your christmas? Could have some fun with it. Get a postcard from the late 1800's to early 1900's that depicts a christmas table setting featuring duck, and then replicate that. Further, have a photo enlatgement done of the postcard and made into placemats. With plates on them it won't of course be immediatly apperent, but a good chuckle when your guests lift the plates to discover a picture of the table spread under them.

Or you could do this type of traditional roast duck:

http://www.cookitsimply.com/poultry/...10-012h10.html

Sorry, feeling lazy, I know I could have typed that all out from memory, but ^:)^

Or the other thing I have done is a roasted a duck and goose together. Nice flavour match. Plum sauce is nice to serve with duck, or a sharp berry like currents, lingonberrys, or cranberrys. I like the green plums myself.

I don't like to over adorne meat. I like meat just the way it is. I did a chicken the other day, where I removed the legs and wings and coated them in a sauce of 1/2 cup water 1 tsp honey 2 tbls bbc spice and 1 tbls of cornstarch and roasted them. And the back and wing tips went to stock which I used to make rice. And the breast I rolled in a 50/50 mix of cornmeal and powdered coconut and roasted. I sliced the breast thin the next morning, pan fried it and did a mother and dauther breakfast. Very good. Very simple.

Always prick your duck prior to roasting and as it roasts siphon off the fat to render later on. Potatos Lyonnaise cooked in a mixture duck fat, butter, garlique, clove, bayleaf. some freshly picked thyme and a side of freshly made Coleman's Mustard are second to none.

Ah, you're a culinary student. You can make this a challenge. Let's see, one duck, you can do it three ways with at least two sauces, and you have to use the bones! Do it all in 2 hours. :D

Roast it with salt and pepper on mirepoix and use the panjuices to make a OVER THE TOP sauce of your choice . Tangerine and ginger , Grapefruit gastrique , How about putting B&B liquor in the sauce , Grand marnier , Or fennel roasted with ouzo , Balsamic with Rasberries , How about chambourd . In other words roast it simply and serve a superb sauce of your choice. :chef: :roll: :chef:

Now that sounds like fun! :bounce: :D I may just do that too! (just for fun)

What I would really like to do though is to have a dozen duck legs and 5 lbs of rendered duck fat..........Ahh....the cardiologists bills would be worth it! :lips:

Confit du canard!!!!!!!!!! Better invite me, Chrose. That stuff is finger-lickin' good. About once every five years, though.

Ma Facon:

My experience with roasting duck is that the animal exudes so much fat that the roasting should be conducted using a baking rack, elevating the animal from the fat. You want neither the duck nor the mire poix swimming in all of that fat.

Here's what I did with a duck last week:

1. Removed the whole skin with fat attached (it was as if I had a whole separate animal :p )
2. Cut the duck into pieces: the whole leg quarters, cut off the breast meat (I sauteed it just before serving, like a steak, sliced it, and fanned the meat over the portions), chop up the rest into meaty/bony chunks
3. Brown the pieces in clarified butter (since there was no fat on them now)
4. Brown chunks of rutabaga (yellow turnip) and carrot, and whole garlic cloves and small onions
5. Deglaze the pan with wine (a mix of leftovers, red and white)
6. Put everything in the slow cooker with some chicken stock, S&P, and dried thyme
7. Let it cook.

Here's where to diverge from what I did: do NOT let it cook for 6 hours. :eek: Since there was no skin and no fat, that was waaaaaaaaaaaaay too long, and the meat fell apart. But it was really delicious! :lips: And did not need to be defatted, which was the best part. :D

Then again, this preparation is kind of inelegant, not quite what you want for a holiday meal.

kokopuffs , Assuming you roast the duck at a high enough temp in the appropriate vessel with properly cut mirepoix for the long roast ,One would want to brown the mirepoix even more in the fat , then drain the fat , deglaze with a good stock or wine and simmer and pass , skim and reduce then flavor the reduction , The fat imparts a unique flavor into the mirepoix which inturn flavors the final sauce wonderfully. The only time a duck swims is when it is in water..LOL

This is not a contemporary method but very effective :chef:

Hey oh

Ok, I need to stick my foot into it lol. I assume that there are a number of varieties of duck that are sold comercially, and that there is also a differenence in how they are fed/bred/raised.

I have had two entirely opposing personal expieriences with dukc (not that I've only cook it twice, just giving this highlite). I will lid my roasters. Only because that is how I grew up doing so. I will do a proper roast now a day but thats anothere story.

My first important experience was a duck that was around 5 pounds in a roaster that gave about an inch clearance around the bird with the lid on. The depth of the fat at the end of cooking that bird was nearly 2 inches!! In that case, the duck did swim in fat.

My second important experience, you guess it, the exact opposite of the first. There was less than a quarter inch of fat at the end of cooking. Same method, same general size of bird, and significantly less fat!!

I do not know why I have had these differences, but I have. Go figure.

Wonderful choice , Simplicity prevails , If you choose not to use the drippings for sauce then save them for that beautiful stock . :chef:

HAPPY HOLLIDAYS !!!

Hey oh

I wish I knew what types of ducks I have cooked. I've only ever done the supermarket frozen in a clear bag duck (from cities in the north through to the south of the provence). It is anybodys guess what varietys they were, or under what conditions they grew. I've only recently become aquainted with a free rang farm a hours drive from my home, and I want to try their duck for sure. There are a few other duck farms even farther from me that sell different varieties, though I am not sure if they are free ranged or not.

I do not know how well the fat renders out of the duck, or what it is like to cook with. With chicken, when I brown the bones, I save the rendered fat and us it as the oil in risotto and the like. With beef, I save the rendered fat for yorkshire puddings. I am guessing that duck fat can be used similarily, but I have not tryed it :(

Gonna have to change that for sure <*begin planning summer trip now: 2 coolers, ice, ...*>

If you treat the rendered fat as if it were butter and clarify it, it will keep a long time. By this I mean: after you've drained it from the cooking pan and strained out any bits of veg, put it back into a clean pot and simmer it very gently until there is no water left in it. Store it in a jar in the fridge, and it keeps quite well.

As for using it, oh my! Saute potatoes in it. Add it to mashed potatoes or other vegetable purees. Blanch vegetables and reheat them in a little duck fat. Use it in the pastry for a pot pie. Drizzle a little, melted, on an escarole salad instead of oil. Save it up until you have enough and make duck confit!! (Right, chrose? ;)) Send it to me so that I can make confit again sooner. :p

Different breeds of duck have different fat contents. The usual supermarket duck in the U.S. is, I believe, a pekin, which is bred to be fatty. Muscovies and mallards (and other "wild" breeds) are much leaner; they are better for braising, as roasting dries them out too much unless they are barded. The duck I over-braised was from Lake Brome in Canada, but I think it was a regular pekin.

Keeper reminded me of the way I most often prepare duck, which is never-fail:

1. Heat a covered skillet very, very hot.
2. Sprinkle duck quarters with salt.
3. Put in duck quarters skin-side down (they will sizzle!!!!!).
4. Cook about 5 minutes until quite brown.
5. Loosen the pieces from the bottom of the skillet with a spatula, but then return them skin-side down.
6. Cover the pan, reduce the heat to low, and cook for 15 minutes more; the skin will be very brown at this point.
7. Uncover, turn the pieces over, re-cover, turn the heat down to very low, and let cook another 30 to 45 minutes until very tender.
8. Uncover, drain off the fat (there will be a lot, if it's a pekin), turn the pieces skin-side down again and raise the heat to medium-high, just enough to recrisp the skin.
9. Serve.

You can marinate the duck ahead of time (wet or dry), add other seasonings, herbs, garlic, etc. to the skillet, but even plain you get a wonderfully tender duck, because you have actually steamed it in its own juices. (I got this method from the NY Times over 10 years ago, and Mark Bittman has had similar recipes in his column, which he got from Paula Peck about 10 years before that. I find that my timing guarantees a fully-cooked, tender bird.)

Duck fat has a very high shelf life if kept refrigerated. Very long life.

Suzanne wrote:

Suzanne, did you discard the skin? :eek: Oh, the gribines.... :lips:

Duck fat, although flavorful, is like goose fat, veeeeerrry heavy. Very heavy. So when frying potatoes I tend to mix about 1 TBS duck fat with a mixture of butter and olive/peanut oil.

Oh, heavens no!!! :p It's in the freezer, awaiting rendering. You see, I had to toss the used fat from my last batch of duck confit -- it accidentally got contaminated -- and so must rebuild the collection for the NEXT batch of confit. :lips: I gotta say, that Canadian duck had one great coat, possibly more than the weight of the flesh and bones. If I can get another like it, I'll be most of the way there.

I know how to make confit and I was just interested in how some of you have been preserving your duck ? :chef:

Hey is that dressing I see? Very good little chicken. :)

Ma Facon, I like to make a ham out of the breast as well. Airdried.