L. has been going on about the Peking duck he had with his dad in Chinatown recently and this made me quite hungry for duck in general, something that I have only cooked a couple of times and rarely ever eat. For some reason, I think of duck as restaurant food and place it squarely in the 1980s. Still, duckling was on sale this week so it seemed as though the stars were aligned for it to join my home repertoire.
I knew I wanted to render as much fat as I could for future use (hello roast potatoes, I see you...) and I very much had the flavors of Peking duck in mind when I set out to cook the beast. Below is a recipe that you can make easily at home which will give you the crispy skin that one tends to crave when eating duck.
I remembered that I had one of those stands that you cook chicken standing up on in the back of a cupboard - never used and given to me as sort of a jokey present - which I thought would come in handy for this but cooking the duck on a rack (so that the rendered fat can drip down into a baking tray placed below) and turning it every 30 minutes would work well too.
1 4 to 5 lb duckling
1/2 an orange
1 Tbsp Chinese Five Spice
1/2 tsp orange peel powder (if you have it or omit)
Salt to taste
Fill your kettle and boil the water.
Preheat oven to 400.
Remove the giblets and neck from the inside of the carcass. Reserve for future use. (My ducking contained 2 necks and no giblets so I froze them for future use in stock or sauces).
Place your duckling in a colander and pour boiling water all over it slowly, turning to ensure that you get all the skin. Then, prick it everywhere with a fork. You can skip this step but it does make for a much crispier end result.
Rub the duckling inside and out with the Chinese Five Spice, orange peel powder if using, and then liberally with salt.
Either place the duckling on the specialty chicken stand, or it balance over an empty washed beer can or place it breast side up on a rack. No matter which, make sure that this rests over a deep lipped baking tray. Place in the oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, rotating at the half way mark or turning every 30 minutes depending on your method of cooking, until the duck is very crispy and has rendered all of its fat. Internet research says that duck's breast temperature when done can be lower than chicken and that one should be aiming for about 135 to 140, if that helps.
Remove from the oven, cover with an aluminum foil tent and allow to rest for 10 to 15 minutes before carving.
Give everyone some of the breast, some of the crispy skin, a leg or a wing and drizzle with the juices from the bird - that you have collected from the carving board and the carcass - and mixed with the juice from the half orange.
As soon as the fat in the pan is cool, pour it through a coffee filter into small containers. (If using the beer can method of cooking, make sure that you collect the fat accumulated in the empty can!) Retain one for your fridge and freeze the rest for later. Strip the carcass of the remaining meat - if any - and, for tomorrow's lunch, add it to a fall salad of bitter greens with a mustardy vinaigrette. Reserve the carcass and make stock - a recipe which I will post as soon as I make it. I'm thinking duck stock ramen but things could change.
For those if you who don't make duck at home because you view it as an expensive luxury item, please check out my paragraph on the return on investment here.
Slightly jarring to peer at through the oven window
but curiously effective as a cooking method for retrieving duck fat
2 cups worth of glorious rendered and filtered liquid gold
"It's our 4th birthday today and yet there is no delicious smelling duck for us?! We have been siting here for an hour waiting for it to come out of the oven!"