We’re having duck for Christmas Eve dinner. My mom (who bought said duck) wants it roasted whole with sage and onion*. I know the sage and onion goes loosely into the cavity after I remove the giblets, excess fat globs, and any pop-up thermometers or what have you, and that I should prick the skin all over to allow fat to render out and crisp up the skin. I also know that the excess fat globs need to be rendered and that the nicely rendered fat should make the acquaintance of some potatoes and a hot pan, or maybe the squash I’ll be roasting half of. (Not a butternut, but looks sort of like one. I don’t remember the name, though.)
But the recipes I’ve read vary wildly in time and temperature recommendations- including the right internal temp for the duck. What’s your favorite roasting method and temperature? The recipes I’ve been reading want me to use a roasting rack: the only racks I have are cooling racks, and I’m not sure how they’d do in the oven for hours. Can I just use a bed of onions if some sort of “up out of the fat” device is necessary?
(I know there have been other duck threads within the past few months, but those were more suggestions that outright numbers, which is what I’m in search of.)
*We both read the Little House books way too much as children.
I have one in the freezer (sometimes you just feel like a duck) and the package says to pre-heat to 375° and cook 22 minutes/lb. Internal temp should be 180°. They have a website for advice and menu ideas at http://www.mapleleaffarms.com. I’ve never been there myself. though. I usually just use salt, pepper, lots of paprika and cook that sucker. (I’m not very discriminating.)
You might get away with the onion bed, but I wouldn’t try it myself. I think the onions would cease to do anything long before the duck is ready (and would be so soaked in grease as to be inedible. Ducks make a LOT of grease.) I honestly don’t know if a cooling rack would work or not. If it’s heavy enough, uncoated and made of a metal that won’t react to heat, I don’t know why it wouldn’t. But…
I bought a cheap roasting pan with rack for around ten-fifteen dollars and find myself using it a lot more than I ever thought I would. It helps cook the bottom of chickens or roasts (or ducks) better than if they’re just laying in the bottom of the pan. I’d be curious to know how it turns out, however you decide to go.
Now I’m hungry for duck. Duck l’orange for one? Nah!
I failed to procure a roasting rack last thanksgiving and tried the onion thing (great minds think alike?). It thoroughly failed. The turky was fine but sitting square on the bottom of the pan by the end.
**BrainGlutton-**Why a duck? I feel like the answer should be “because it hurts more” or “very small rocks” or similar, but it’s really more along the lines of “we’ve had beef roasts three times plus those leftovers twice in the past 12 days, we’re having turkey and ham tomorrow, and anyway pork aggravates my mom’s not-actually-gout-or-is-it-I’ve-been-gone-since-August-and-am-not-sure, lamb is for springtime, and we don’t eat veal. Also, we like duck.” It’s something different, which is nice for Christmas Eve.
Miss Violaceous How did you cut your onions (or were they pearls?) for the rack-that-wasn’t? I was thinking that thick disks might survive a little longer than the other options.
Turns out we’ve forgotten to get whipping cream for almond tart, so I might be able to get a cheap roasting rack at the grocery store. Fingers crossed!
BrainGlutton- I should have gotten that! My dad loves the Marx Brothers, but when I was a kid we mostly watched Three Stooges if we were watching classic comedy.
On the duck roasting front, there were no racks to be found at one grocery store, and the unplowed just above freezing icey slush hardpacked grossness of the other store’s parking lot, across the road from the first store, meant I didn’t even bother to look for a rack there. Maybe I’ll put it on the broiler pan. That could work, right?
Hint I saw on a cooking show a while ago for making an impromptu rack: Crumple up some tinfoil into a rope, lay it in the roasting pan, and place the roast on top of that.
We use them in restaurants for finishing steaks and whatnot on the oven. We make circles out of them and call them halos. Keeps from ruining grill marks.
Hmm… I might do a combo of the broiler pan and the foil. The duck’s already sitting on the broiler pan, getting as dry as possible/finishing its thawing, so there’s no point in switching to another pan to use the foil with it.
I still have to make a rosemary focaccia and an almond tart too so it’s going to get quite dry before it can go in the oven.
The late and much lamented Laurie Colwin wrote in More Home Cooking (Harper Collins) suggests starting your duck in a 400 F oven after he’s been pricked all over and has had an orange, cut in half, put in his cavity with a few smashed garlic cloves. After an hour at that heat, he will have rendered much of his fat. Reduce the heat to 325 F and cook for another 2 hours. This will have the meat falling from the bones and will produce lovely duck and crisp skin, which is the idea, after all.
Ms. Colwin also paid tribute to R. Crumb and “Ducks Yas Yas” by quoting this poem:
Mama bought a rooster
Thought it was a duck
Brought it to the table
With its legs straight up.
Colwin is a tad cutesy if you read more than 2 or 3 essays at a time, but still, she was a good writer about food and made my subscription to Gourmet worthwhile. After she was gone, so was my subscription.
Duck Report: The duck ended up delicious (yay) but without much crispy skin on the breast: I should have pricked it more or given it more time at high heat. I started at 425, knowing I less than an hour I could watch it, then dropped it to 300. When we got home it wasn’t crispy enough, so I had it under the broiler element, but everyone was demanding “is it dinner yet” and I finally said, “Damn the crispiness, full speed ahead!”
Thanks to everyone who gave suggestions and tips! This was one of the few things that went well tonight. (PNW snowstorm + crappy chains on the car = not getting to church.)