I want to cook a duck.

[Denninmi]

I have been seeing them done on some of the cooking shows lately.

I have four pet Rouen ducks, so I certainly can't discuss this with THEM, LOL! I don't think they would appreciate me, and would probably be suspicious of all of the extra holiday time treats lately (well, it's just a lot of $.38 a loaf markdown Kroger bread). They're safe. Really.

Actually, I was trying to think of something different to make for the family for New Years. I'm sick of ham, roast beef, roast pork, and turkey, and I'm the only one in the house who likes lamb, so that's out.

I think I might buy a duck and try that.

But, what kind of sauce or treatment -- the classic orange sauce, or maybe a red currant jelly glaze? Or, should I try something Asian with ginger and hoisin sauce and some five spice powder?

Any thoughts?

[hippywife]

1. I did this one last Friday

http://myhusbandcooks.wordpress.com/2006/11/17/look-away-daffy-asian-inspired-roasted-duck/

I didn't use a grill or flavor injector. See my comments at the bottom of the recipe page.

[Warpy]

2. Your choices for saucing are great

but duck is moist enough not to need it, really. Even after all that lovely duck fat has rendered out of the skin to be poured off and saved in the fridge (and you ARE going to want to save it, trust me on this), there's still plenty to moisten the meat.

Duck loves sweet condiments and summery red wines.

[Tab]

3. I used to live near a place "famous for its duck"

Having heard about it for years, and always being in search of a good implementation of duck, we went to try it out.

It literally was out in the woods (and we lived in a rural area anyway) but we found it.

Pretty much all they sold (at least, all anyone ordered) was duck. Unfortunately what they were doing were selling overcooked ducks with your choice of sauces. You must have had a choice of 15 sauces (from orange to blueberry) but it was all to cover up a dry duck.

I suspect the restaurant was truly good once upon a time, but the owners sold it, and it deteriorated and lived on leaf-peeper reputation alone as a place to go when you're in that area.

I have had but a handful of truly excellent duck. One was at the Trout something-or-other on the Bristol, TN border, which was melt-in-your-mouth ohmygodthisissogood, the other three were in now defunct restaurants (including one where you would not expect to find it). Good duck - truly excellent duck - is rare and in-between, but worth looking for. I almost always try the duck at a restaurant I haven't been at, hoping, just hoping, to find the next implementation of God's Gift to Duck Eating.

Mediocre duck is okay, as long as it's moist. It only sucks when it's been radically overcooked.

- Tab

[Warpy]

4. I've never had mediocre duck

but I've always been the cook, so there.

I think it's much more successful to flavor the duck skin than it is to serve vats of sauce at the table. That way you can do things like orange marmalade, honey, or even a tea and spice smoking mixture. Duck meat should be naturally juicy--there is a lot of fat on those birdies and you need to blast it away for hours to make the meat dry, IMO.

This thread is making me very hungry for duck and I've never seen one for sale here in NM.

[Tab]

6. If you've never had excellent duck

Then by definition you can't really class mediocre duck. Nothing against NM, but if that's all you've got to work with (considering ordering a heritage duck - you'd be quite surprised, and fuck the orange marmalade), you're stuck with your duck.

Or, to make meat dry, you can just keep it in a roaster all day long for your dinnertime service, and at some time they'll get dry and overcooked.

Consider if your only experience with hamburger is McDonalds...

Do it, Warpy! Order yourself a heritage duck! If I wasn't unemployed I'd order one and send it to you. Try cooking that properly (meaning, don't overcook it). See how it is, then consider whether the other duck you've had in your life is mediocre or not (regardless of who cooked it).

- Tab

[Warpy]

7. 'Scuse me?

Just because I haven't had some prissy chef cook it for me doesn't mean I haven't experienced melt in your mouth duck nirvana. I have.

I just can't satisfy the craving here in NM. They don't sell waterfowl in a state without water.

[Tab]

8. 'Scuse 'SCUSE me?

I didn't mean to imply you weren't a prissy chef :)

You may have cooked some excellent duck, but that doesn't mean there isn't overcooked duck out there. You can overcook nearly everything. I've had too many overcooked ducks to just assume that any duck I order will be excellent. Experience has shown that it won't be - it'll be average, until you hit the rare cook who makes it exceptionally well. That may well be you, Warpy, but don't assume everyone cooks like you. There's a lot of mediocre shit out there, much of it posing as quality shit. If you've had REAL quality duck (and it sounds like you have) then the rest seems mediocre. The quality stuff is few and far between.

- Tab

[stellanoir]

5. Ginger Duck

1 Duck thawed in the fridge, giblets removed
1 onion peeled & cut in half or 3 shallots
2 stalks of celery, cut into 3 inch long pieces
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 cup of sugar (I use brown sugar)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sherry
1 small bunch of watercress, trimmed and washed

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

2. After one hour, turn the duck over. Add the sugar, soy sauce, and salt. Continue simmering for another hour. Turn duck once again and simmer until tender until 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 the top. Scrape off 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 duck broth to the roasting pan and place in the oven. Roast uncovered for 30-45 minutes, basting occasionally with the juices in the pan. The duck is donewhen it is heated through and the skin is crisp and chestnut brown.

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

Yield: Dinner for 4, with no leftovers.

For well over a decade, I've made this annually for my father's birthday. I've found that often if you simmer the duck for close to three hours it completely falls apart (especially if it's fresh duck) so I've learned to turn it every 30 -45 minutes and watch it like a hawk.

The recipe came out of the New York Times Sunday Magazine. It was written by the food editor and critic. She had fallen in love and got to the stage in the relationship when it was time to meet his parents. She had wanted to take them out to dinner so as to not put his mum on the spot given the nature of her work as she didn't want to intimidate her. The mum wanted to cook for her and the food critic was totally wowed by the mum's enormously huge, state of the art kitchen that was perfectly organized with cookware and obscure utensils from all over the world, some of which the food critic couldn't even recognize or identify. The mum served the duck with rice that had been cooked in the duck broth and she had shredded carrots and parsnips into long thin strands and steamed them with butter in a saute pan and finished them with a sprinkling of tarragon.

The food critic was totally humbled by her totally wrong pre-assumptions.

She was fairly funny about it and it was a very cute story.

It's really delicious.

[TreasonousBastard]

9. One of my favorites is Wor Shu App, or steamed, fried duck...

alas, only half a recipe found so far:

http://www.dvo.com/recipe_pages/china/Steamed_Deep-Fried_Pressed_Duck.html

I'll admit I've never made it myself, but if you're feeling lucky, or at least adventurous, you might give it a try.

(And there's all those other ideas at the bottom of that page...)

[Denninmi]

10. Thank You All.

Thanks to all of you. I appreciate the suggestions, and the recipes sound great.

Alas, I didn't end up getting to cook my duck. I got it, defrosted and soaked it out, and put it into a marinade when my sister showed up with three quarts of Chinese take-out AND two pizzas and breadsticks. She said she thought we wouldn't want to cook for New Years Eve and could have the leftovers the next day. That put the kibosh on the duck.

I would accuse her of intentionally sabotaging me, in the belief that she was afraid of having duck for new years, but she didn't know of "Operation Donald" until she came in that night with the carry out.

Not a problem, though, I just popped the whole thing as is (it was already in a big Ziploc) into the freezer. I'll cook it next weekend, or maybe wait and use it for my mother's birthday in two weeks.

Thanks again, all.