How to cook a duck

For business or pleasure?

(That is, in the restaurant or at home?)

Whole duck or just the breasts? Sweet or savory?

Canard Grille Chez Michel

Not sure what you are looking for but found something.....

A Recipe I make from the book entitled Cooking with Wine by Robin McDouall. If you like wine........
Here it is as taken directly from her book:


Canard Grille Chez Michel ( for 2 people)


1 Duck..............................1 Glass red wine
Butter ..............................2 tbls veal stock
2 Carrots..........................½ Glass port
2 Button Onions................1 tbls foie gras
2 Sticks of Celery..............1 tbps butter
Quatre Epices.................. French mustard
1 Glass dry white wine...... Breadcrumbs


“This is a dish I learnt from Chez Michel, 10 rue Belzunce. Paris – two stars in Michelin and deserves them. It is essential to cut off the whole of the breast with the wing attached. The breast and wing provides , as it were, the main course; the leg, cooked quite differently, comes later with a clean plate and is , as it were, the savoury.

Having removed the breasts and legs, chop the carcase and toss it in butter with the carrots, onion, celery, and seasoning. Add the white and red wine and the veal stock.

Cook for an hour and strain through a sieve. Reduce gently by half. Finish the sauce by mixing in the duck's liver, put through a sieve and mixed with fois gras and port, finally adding the butter in small pieces.

Now grill the wings, keeping them slightly pink on the inside. Put them on a serving dish and cover them with the sauce. Serve with une pomme golden (sic), cooked brown in butter and cut in four.

Then comes the next course. Remove the sinews from the legs. Grill the legs and when they are half done, spread French mustard generously on them, sprinkle lightly with breadcrumbs and finish grilling. Serve at once, accompanied by crisp pommes allumettes.”


As you can see it is not hard to make.


ps Quatre epices : would be pepper, clove, nutmeg, ginger.


Another great recipe is Canard a la Mode ( great dish)

Just an idea......

I'd recommend picking a style of cooking a duck and then look for a duck that fits that style of cooking.

What works for a French duck technique is not the same kind of duck that works best for a Chinese duck technique. They're harvested at different points in their lives which gives different fat distribution and so on.

Bringing duck home / A guide to cooking a bird that's both crisp and juicy discusses this in more detail.