Recipe: Roast Duck
Oct. 28th, 2010 07:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coraaOn Tuesday, I made roast duck with apple glaze for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jmpava and bellwethr. The method was cobbled together from several recipes I found in Cook's Illustrated or online (and thank you for all of you who provided links!).
It came out quite nicely: crispy rendered skin, nice moist meat. The breast does wind up well-done rather than medium rare, but that was an acceptable trade off for the excellent skin.
It's not a particularly complicated recipe, but it does require a deep roasting pan that is stove-safe, and a bit of time.
At the end of this, you will have a roast duck's worth of duck meat, plus rendered duck fat, plus a quart or so of duck stock.
Roast Duck with Apple Glaze
Apple Glaze
Next, prepare the duck. Remove the giblets (if any) and trim away excess flaps of skin/fat. (If you want to render every ounce of duck fat, you can hang onto the removed skin/fat for later.)
Coarsely chop the onion and carrot, and smash the garlic. (By "smash" I really do mean "smash"—use a meat pounder or the bottom of a can of beans or whatever and smash it flat, then remove the loose papery peel.)
Put a rack (a v-rack is recommended, usually, but I don't have one, so I used a flat rack and it worked fine) in the roasting pan. Put the duck on the rack. Around the duck, in the bottom of the pan, distribute the giblets (if your duck came with them), the chopped onion and carrots and the smashed garlic, and the sprigs of thyme. Add water until it comes up just to the bottom of the duck. Place the roasting pan across two burners and turn both on high. Bring to a boil.
When the liquid is at a boil, cover the pan with aluminum foil and crimp the edges to act as a lid. (Or if you have a lid for your roasting pan, use that. I don't.) Reduce heat to medium and steam form 30-40 minutes, or until the skin of the duck looks tight and shiny. Check every 10 minutes or so to make sure the liquid level doesn't drop too much. (Be careful when pulling back the edge of the foil: there will be a lot of super-hot steam. Actually, it's safest to do that with a pair of tongs.)
Turn off heat and let cool a bit, then remove the duck (pouring the juices from the body cavity back into the pan) and place on a cutting board. Strain the liquid into a soup pot and discard the solids, and set aside.
Heat the oven to 425F and put one of the racks at the lowest position.
When the duck is cool enough to handle, cut it into pieces: remove the wings and the legs (don't bother to split the legs into thigh and drumstick, just one big leg piece works well), and cut off the boneless breasts. They should all come away pretty easily since the duck is mostly cooked. You will now have seven pieces: two wings, two legs, two breasts, and the main body consisting of back and ribcage. Salt and pepper the pieces on all sides.
Wipe clean your roasting pan and oil with a veeeeery thin layer of vegetable oil. Lay the seven duck pieces skin-side down flat on the bottom of the pan, and slide the roasting pan into the oven on the lowest rack. If you have extra duck skin you want to render, add that to the pan as well.
Cook for 20-30 minutes, or until the skin on the breasts is rendered crispy. Check every 10 minutes or so and remove the fat that accumulates; this will keep the fat from scorching, which in turn will keep your kitchen from filling with smoke and setting off the alarm. Safest way to do this is by spooning it out, or if you have a heat-safe bulb baster, use that. I live dangerously and pour it off, but since that increases the chances of burning yourself, uh, be careful. (I pay for my cavalierness with a number of little burn scars on my hands and forearms.) Be sure to pour the fat into something heat-resistant: very hot fat can melt plastic bowls.
When the skin is crispy on the breasts, remove them and wrap in foil to keep warm. Flip all the other pieces over and cook another 15-20 minutes. Again, remove fat every 10 minutes or so.
By this point, the pieces in the oven should be a nice medium brown. Remove the rack from the oven. Put the duck ribs-and-back piece aside. Paint the other six pieces with glaze (see? I had not forgotten the glaze!) on both sides, and return to the pan. Return the pan to the oven and cook a couple of minutes more (no more than 3-4), to caramelize the glaze. (Keep an eye on it: the sticky glaze will burn if you leave it in too long.)
Remove from oven and serve.
I used the rendered duck fat to fry thinly-sliced potatoes and carrots, and they were amazing. I mean, granted, when you take potatoes and fry them in a saturated fat chances are excellent that they'll be tasty, but still.
To finish the duck stock: Put the rib-and-back duck carcass in the pot with the steaming liquid. Add water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and simmer an hour, adding liquid as necessary. Strain. Hooray, you have duck stock.
I remembered that I was going to get pictures about ten minutes after we finished devouring the bird, so no pictures. But it was quite good!
jmpava and bellwethr. The method was cobbled together from several recipes I found in Cook's Illustrated or online (and thank you for all of you who provided links!).It came out quite nicely: crispy rendered skin, nice moist meat. The breast does wind up well-done rather than medium rare, but that was an acceptable trade off for the excellent skin.
It's not a particularly complicated recipe, but it does require a deep roasting pan that is stove-safe, and a bit of time.
At the end of this, you will have a roast duck's worth of duck meat, plus rendered duck fat, plus a quart or so of duck stock.
Roast Duck with Apple Glaze
Apple Glaze
- 1 shallot
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed
- 1 cup apple cider
- a sprig or two of fresh thyme
- a 4-5 lb whole duck
- 1/2 onion
- 1 carrot
- 2-4 cloves garlic, smashed
- another sprig or two of fresh thyme
- salt
- pepper
- vegetable oil
Next, prepare the duck. Remove the giblets (if any) and trim away excess flaps of skin/fat. (If you want to render every ounce of duck fat, you can hang onto the removed skin/fat for later.)
Coarsely chop the onion and carrot, and smash the garlic. (By "smash" I really do mean "smash"—use a meat pounder or the bottom of a can of beans or whatever and smash it flat, then remove the loose papery peel.)
Put a rack (a v-rack is recommended, usually, but I don't have one, so I used a flat rack and it worked fine) in the roasting pan. Put the duck on the rack. Around the duck, in the bottom of the pan, distribute the giblets (if your duck came with them), the chopped onion and carrots and the smashed garlic, and the sprigs of thyme. Add water until it comes up just to the bottom of the duck. Place the roasting pan across two burners and turn both on high. Bring to a boil.
When the liquid is at a boil, cover the pan with aluminum foil and crimp the edges to act as a lid. (Or if you have a lid for your roasting pan, use that. I don't.) Reduce heat to medium and steam form 30-40 minutes, or until the skin of the duck looks tight and shiny. Check every 10 minutes or so to make sure the liquid level doesn't drop too much. (Be careful when pulling back the edge of the foil: there will be a lot of super-hot steam. Actually, it's safest to do that with a pair of tongs.)
Turn off heat and let cool a bit, then remove the duck (pouring the juices from the body cavity back into the pan) and place on a cutting board. Strain the liquid into a soup pot and discard the solids, and set aside.
Heat the oven to 425F and put one of the racks at the lowest position.
When the duck is cool enough to handle, cut it into pieces: remove the wings and the legs (don't bother to split the legs into thigh and drumstick, just one big leg piece works well), and cut off the boneless breasts. They should all come away pretty easily since the duck is mostly cooked. You will now have seven pieces: two wings, two legs, two breasts, and the main body consisting of back and ribcage. Salt and pepper the pieces on all sides.
Wipe clean your roasting pan and oil with a veeeeery thin layer of vegetable oil. Lay the seven duck pieces skin-side down flat on the bottom of the pan, and slide the roasting pan into the oven on the lowest rack. If you have extra duck skin you want to render, add that to the pan as well.
Cook for 20-30 minutes, or until the skin on the breasts is rendered crispy. Check every 10 minutes or so and remove the fat that accumulates; this will keep the fat from scorching, which in turn will keep your kitchen from filling with smoke and setting off the alarm. Safest way to do this is by spooning it out, or if you have a heat-safe bulb baster, use that. I live dangerously and pour it off, but since that increases the chances of burning yourself, uh, be careful. (I pay for my cavalierness with a number of little burn scars on my hands and forearms.) Be sure to pour the fat into something heat-resistant: very hot fat can melt plastic bowls.
When the skin is crispy on the breasts, remove them and wrap in foil to keep warm. Flip all the other pieces over and cook another 15-20 minutes. Again, remove fat every 10 minutes or so.
By this point, the pieces in the oven should be a nice medium brown. Remove the rack from the oven. Put the duck ribs-and-back piece aside. Paint the other six pieces with glaze (see? I had not forgotten the glaze!) on both sides, and return to the pan. Return the pan to the oven and cook a couple of minutes more (no more than 3-4), to caramelize the glaze. (Keep an eye on it: the sticky glaze will burn if you leave it in too long.)
Remove from oven and serve.
I used the rendered duck fat to fry thinly-sliced potatoes and carrots, and they were amazing. I mean, granted, when you take potatoes and fry them in a saturated fat chances are excellent that they'll be tasty, but still.
To finish the duck stock: Put the rib-and-back duck carcass in the pot with the steaming liquid. Add water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and simmer an hour, adding liquid as necessary. Strain. Hooray, you have duck stock.
I remembered that I was going to get pictures about ten minutes after we finished devouring the bird, so no pictures. But it was quite good!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-10-28 05:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-28 07:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-29 03:19 am (UTC)