Any advice on cooking a duck?

Answer 1

A duck is VERY greasy, therefore you will have to drain the fat away several times during the cooking. When roasting a duck, make sure you have it on a "rack" inside the roasting pan. If you do not, it will be almost impossible to remove when cooked. At least make a "string sling" so you can lift it out when done. Make an orange gravy, the drippings from a duck are far too fatty for gravy. Good Luck - if your still not sure, go to the Cooking Network web site and look it up. Happy eating!

Answer 2

Fancy Chinese roast duck?

Mix together Chinese Five Spice, salt and Star anise together. Ensure the neck end of the duck is closed, then pour the mixture into the cavity. Close this end up, with sting or poultry lacer, which ever you find easier. Give the duck a shake so that the mixture coats the cavity. Hang up in a well ventilated area for a day, or slightly longer so that the skin is nice and dry. Then roast on a rack so that the fat drains away. The skin will turn out really crispy.

Enjoy!

Answer 3

Delicious Roast Duck

Make a marinade with the following;
1 cup soy sauce
1-2 TBSP pure sesame oil (to taste)
3 green onions, finely sliced with some of the green tops
1/2 tsp ground 5-spice powder
1/4 C oyster sauce
1 TBSP granulated sugar
1 clove garlic minced OR 1/4 tsp granulated garlic
mix all above ingredients together then stir in
1/2 C dried cherries.

After washing the duck; pat it dry with kitchen roll (inside and out). Pierce the skin thoroughly with a cooking fork. Try to avoid puncturing the meat itself (though don't sweat it if you do!) - this is to encourage the fat to drain off and allows the marinade to get to the meat. When you think you've poked it enough, give it a few more all over, just to be sure - going for a pin-cushion effect!

Put the duck into a large glass bowl or other non-metallic container and drench it, inside and out, with the marinade. Turn it over and over and make sure the marinade gets into the cavity. Bonus; the marinade will soak into the holes which helps you find the areas still needing poking. Let it rest, breast side down if possible, in the marinade while you prepare the aromatics, the roasting pan and preheat the oven to 450 degrees (gas mark 8).

You will want to roast the duck in an open roasting pan, on a meat rack. If you don't have a meat rack; a cake cooling rack placed in (or balanced across) a roasting pan will do.

Prepare the following aromatics to be added to the roasting pan:
1 large onion roughly cut into large chunks - into 3 of the chunks, push a whole dried clove (sometimes you need to poke the onion quarter with the tip of a knife first).
4-6 toes of garlic (to taste), peeled and crushed
2-3 roughly chopped carrots (2 or 3 inch pieces fine - peeling not necessary)
1/2 cup dried cherries or cranberrys
1 cup boiling water

Place the duck, breast side up, onto the meat rack. Spoon at least two of the onion hunks (one w/cloves), 2 or 3 pieces of carrot into the cavity, some of the garlic and cherries. Put the rest of the above ingredients into the roasting pan under the meat rack. Then, ladle half of the marinade into the cavity. Ladle the rest over the whole duck, allowing it to pool in the roasting pan below with the veggies. Generously add fresh ground pepper all over duck and veggies in pan.

Place the duck into the preheated oven. Roast for 10 minutes at 450 then turn the oven down to 350 degrees (gas mark 4). After 20 more minutes (30 in full), baste the whole duck with the pan drippings and continue to baste every 10 minutes for the next hour, until 1 1/2 total cooking time has elapsed and the duck is finished. (If you want the skin to be crispier, for the last 10 minutes turn the oven up again to 450 and do not baste.)

Remove the duck from the oven and allow to rest for 20 minutes undisturbed while making the sauce;

The best way to make the sauce is to use a fat separator. If you don't own one, strain the drippings into a large clear glass bowl or pitcher and be patient as the fat rises to the top. While waiting, pick through the veggies and try and rescue some of the succulent cherries to add back into the sauce (or simply have another 1/4 cup of the dried fruit ready to go into the sauce for continuity of flavor). Spoon as much of the fat off the top of the drippings as possible.

Pour the remaining liquid into a heavy bottomed sauce-pan, add the cherries and bring it to a simmer; taste it for seasoning - it should be rich and salty and sweet all at the same time. To thicken it, mix 1 TBSP flour with 2 TBSP softened un-salted butter with a fork in a small shallow dish; when the sauce is at a low boil, add the thickener, whisking vigorously to remove the lumps. Keep whisking until the sauce is thickened.

Taste and adjust seasoning (more cracked pepper or salt as needed). If it is absolutely too rich (or salty); cut it with water, a tablespoon at a time, whisking continuously.

Carve the duck as you would a whole chicken or turkey (remove and discard the veggies in the cavity). Simply serve with a gravy boat of sauce on the side.

Suggested side dishes;
Brown and wild rice pilaf
Rustic "smashed" red potatoes
Couscous
Slices of grilled polenta
Oven roasted asparagus

Answer 4

After you have rinsed the plucked duck, sprinkle it with salt and pepper. Let it rest while you preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Roast the duck on the highest rack for 15 minutes. Hot and fast, so the duck meat is rare and juicy.

Answer 5

A duck is very greasy, so the best way is to bake it on a rack to drain the grease off the duck, it will taste alot better in the long run

Answer 6

Don't put any extra fat in the pan as it is already fatty enough. If it has skin, rub some salt into the skin to get rid of any excess moisture and then cook on a high heat so that it goes lovely and crispy on top. Yum yum yum

Answer 7

Remove it's quack, pluck it's feathers, take out it's giblets and cook as you would if you were cooking a chicken.

Answer 8

stick it in a medium oven on a roasting tray so it is above the roasting dish and leave it alone for 1.5 hours

Answer 9

dont do it at all - the one are eating may have been the one that you went ''awwwwwwwwwwwwww isnt he/she the sweetest duck ever?! '' to weeks ago

Answer 10

throw petrol on it..set it alight..it will go...woof..turn it in to a dog..