Speaking of ducky fries (and duck)

[Tab]

I occasionally would go on "quests" - how to master home pizza or whatever. Over the years, duck has been one of those quests. Unlike pizza, though, you can't really just make it every night (at least I can't). Over the years, though, I've gotten acceptable good at it.

There are two main problems with duck. One is the level of fat. I've gotten to steaming the duck before roasting it. This melts out a lot of the fat. Of course, "problem" could be "opportunity" but I haven't figured out how to turn this problem into an opportunity.

Note: I'm not sharing knowledge here, I'm asking for it :) Um, knowledge, that is.

The other PITA about ducks is carving them. Now I know why restaurants serve whole or half ducks, or just breasts, because carving a duck after it has been cooked is a royal bitch. I can carve a chicken in seconds, but I can't carve a duck without mutilating it. Anyway, that doesn't really reflect on the cooking - I just cut it ahead of time, keeping the mutilation to smaller levels.

Anyway, so when I cook duck, I steam it to lower the fat level, rub (and often stuff it) with herbs, and roast it. Anyone got any better ideas?

I bet it'd be great in a pressure cooker, but I haven't owned a working one in years.

[Warpy]

1. I haven't done duck in years

but I pre baked it on a rack to render out all the fat and get it 90% cooked, then did a tea and spice smoking mixture in a wok on top of the stove to finish it, using Barbara Tropp's method and mixture.

Carving it into bite sized pieces able to be handled by folks with chopsticks wasn't a big deal. I just used my super sharp Chinese cleaver, took the wings, legs and thighs off as usual, then just whacked the carcass in half and whacked off bite sized pieces from there.

The smoked flavor was just amazing. Nobody seemed to mind the fact that my carving was more like butchery, they were too busy oohing and ahhhing over the flavor. If a piece didn't have much meat on it, it still had that super crispy, smoked skin.

[twenty4blackbirds]

2. twice cooked roast duck at posh restaurant

It is boiled, then hung to drip fat in the fridge. Then roasted. Delicious.

[Tab]

3. I have a conceptual problem with boiling.

I will pre-boil sausage, but anything else I prefer to steam (if it needs a pre-cooking). I don't know if this is rational or not, but it always seems that a lot of flavor disappears into the water. Perhaps a properly flavored water would work, as I season my pasta water, but I had my fair share of boiled chicken while growing up and it was always tasteless. Probably more a fault of the cook than the concept. Maybe a seasoned boil would be good. But a plain boil? I have trouble signing up for that. Maybe I should experiment with it more. Chicken is cheap enough.

[Warpy]

8. You're right about that

but duck has ample flavor to stand up to a boil. Still, I preferred to ignore Tropp's instructions for precooking and roast the birdie to render the fat.

The advantage was getting that much yummy duck fat in the bottom of the roasting pan that didn't need to be skimmed or anything else, just cooled and strained into a jar in the fridge to flavor everything I sauteed for the next couple of months.

[twenty4blackbirds]

12. seasoned boil might be it

I was chatting to the waitperson, and I'm fairly sure that no chef gives out the exact recipe :-)

[TreasonousBastard]

4. Poke a lot of holes in the skin and...

roast at 450 for a half hour, then drop temp to 350-375 to finish cooking. This won't get rid of all the fat, but will get rid of the greasy nastiness ducks are hated for. This is an old restaurant shortcut.

BTW, duck (and goose) fat has the calories but isn't as bad for you as other animal fats. Because it's
designed to insulate the duck from cold water snd help in flotation, it's chemical structure is not like other birds or beasts. But if you don't want to eat the fat, cooked this way the skin peels off with the fat and leaves just the meat. If you insist on eating the crispy skin but hate the fat, well, too bad-- scrape as much fat off the skin as you can.

I've never worried about carving a duck-- damn things are usually too small to worry about that anyway. I just halve or quarter it with a solid pair of shears or cleaver.

(If I make one for myself, I just dig in with the fork and other implements of destruction.)

[yellerpup]

5. That's just the way I do it.

But I slash instead of poke holes. I usually buy the duck parts only--legs and thighs or breasts--so I just get the edible portions and not all the extra fat.

[stellanoir]

6. I have a phenomenal Ginger Duck recipe that I got out of the NYT Sunday mag

many years ago. They probably don't have it online. I think I already posted it here but I'll do a search when I'm freer.

If not, I'll type it for you after I take care of a few things but the story was absolutely adorable.

It was written by the NYT food critic and at the time she had recently fallen in love.

She and her beau got to the point in the relationship where familial introductions were appropriate. She was so funny in her honesty about wrestling with apprehensions about putting his mum on the spot.

Well turned out, his mum could out do Martha Stewart any day of the week, had an exquisite kitchen and made Ginger Duck.

It was parboiled the day before to extract the grease and then warmed just before serving.

It is so-o-o succulent and melt in your mouth GOOD.

Will chime in later one way or the other.

I swear, it is the BEST.

More later.

[yellerpup]

7. I'd love to have that recipe.

Ginger duck. YUM!

[stellanoir]

9. I found it !!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=2903135#

Amazingly good ginger duck recipe

1 duck (thawed in fridge, giblets removed)*
1 onion, peeled and cut in half, or 3 shallots
2 stalks celery, cut into 3-inch-long pieces
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 cup sugar (I use far less honey)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sherry (I buy the better stuff as opposed to cooking sherry)
1 small bunch watercress, trimmed and washed

1. The day before, stuff the duck with the onion and celery. Place the duck breast side up, in a large soup pot with enough water to half cover it. Add the ginger and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce the heat so that it simmers gently for an hour.

2. After one hour, turn the duck over. Add the sugar, soy sauce, and salt. Continue simmering for another hour. Turn the duck once again and simmer until tender and almost falling apart, about another hour. Turn off the heat and when cool enough, remove duck from pot and place in a roasting pan. Cover and refrigerate until the next day.

3. Pour the broth into a container and chill overnight. A layer of fat will form on top. Scrape off the fat and discard. What remains is delicious in rice and soups and can be frozen for months.

4. Before serving bring duck to room temperature in roasting pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add the sherry and 1 cup of the defatted broth to the roasting pan and roast uncovered for 30 to 45 minutes, basting occasionally with the juices from the pan. The duck is done whe it is heated through and the skin is crist and chestnut brown.

5. Transfer the duck to a serving platter and garnish with watercress.

Yield: Dinner for four with no leftovers

*last time I used fresh duck and should have cut way down a bit on the time I simmered it as it cooks in half the time

[yellerpup]

10. Thank you!

I can't wait to try this one! You are a peach for getting back to me so quickly.

[stellanoir]

11. You are very welcome and my pleasure.

You just reminded me of a cobbler who used to call me peaches years ago. Haven't a clue why he did that but it was fairly ironic and the only other time anyone has referred to me as such.

Hope you do enjoy the recipe but please know that the simmering time is HUGELY different for fresh and frozen duck. I learned that the hard way.

"D-oh"

[Mojorabbit]

13. This sounds heavenly

Thanks! I might do this for valentines day.