urgent -- cooking duck -- help!

[alkapal]

4.65 # long island duckling.

package recommended 325 degrees for 45 minutes per pound, then 25 minutes at 375 for 20 minutes to brown. am i looking at 3+ hours??

how long to cook?
should i remove the fatty section near duck's rear section?
should i remove long flap of skin near duck neck?

what to do with one giblet, neck and liver?

thanks, hounds, i know you'll come through!

[roxlet]

For future reference, my husband makes something he calls 'high temperature bird' on the BBQ. Using an indirect heat method, he gets the grill really hot, and puts the duck ont he other side of the grill. It is so delicious this way, and no oven clean-up. BTW, we find that 1 duck feeds only 3 people.

[alkapal]

any ideas for the carcass? a stock, then cannellini beans?

[MMRuth]

Yes, you have to make this duck soup - it's phenomenal:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/4839...

[alkapal]

thanks! i like the idea of the veggies and the orange to cut the fattiness, and bring a little vegetal interest and fruity sweetness. all i need to buy is some port and some white wine.

i also like how you let the soup "evolve" the next day with the addition of some roasted diced veggies, like turnip. i think turnips' sweet/bitter taste would be a good complement to the ducky flavor.

[MMRuth]

Hope you like it - I have on occasion used red wine instead of the port.

[alkapal]

thank you all. we cooked duck for 3 hours. duck was juicy and skin crispy. did not remove fatty bits, hoping to render. will need to render those bits some more.

why in the heck don't ducks have more flesh? these look like tony little wannabes. no, not tony little -- suzanne sommers wannabes. i guess "super pollo" has spoiled us, right?

[JoanN]

Just curious at what temp. As instructed on the package? Must say I'm flabbergasted you weren't eating cardboard. Sounded way too long to me.

[alkapal]

joan, no, not cardboard by any stretch -- roasted 3 hours at 325-350. i know it sounded too long to me as well, but it wasn't. the flesh was juicy, and skin was crispy.

[Sam Fujisaka]

Cardboard, no. Particle board.

[alkapal]

i think i'd know if it was juicy, with crispy skin.

[Sam Fujisaka]

My sincerest apologies!

[greygarious]

Guess the Perdues weren't interested in re-engineering Donald. Ducks seem to be the same as when my vintage Hungarian cookbook (Georg Lang) was written. It contains a rant about how a duck has too much meat for 2 people and not enough for 3.

[alkapal]

wasn't perdue. was "culver" http://www.culverduck.com/

[greygarious]

That was a joke of sorts - a reference to the Perdue type of huge-breasted chickens as compared to the duck, which still retains normal proportions.

[alanbarnes]

I like to steam the duck for an hour or so, until most of the fat has rendered out. By that time the duck is pretty much cooked, and roasting is just about getting the skin nice and crisp. Half an hour at 425 ought to do the trick, but keep a close eye on things during that part of the process. Duck fat makes a LOT of smoke.

[greygarious]

Mom always roasted a whole duck after LIBERALLY scoring the skin with cross-hatching every half inch. I have no idea of the temp but the skin was dark and crisp and most of the underlying fat had rendered out. This was 40 years ago and I'm sure she had no secret ingredients or techniques. She put an apple and an onion in the cavity and stuck it in the oven. I once tried to do the steaming-then-roasting thing and was unable to achieve a crisp skin. It remained rubbery and too fatty.

[Sam Fujisaka]

450 oven for 20 minutes!!!

[alkapal]

450 oven for 20 minutes? not helpful!

[Sam Fujisaka]

Why not? Duck is simple and can be done rare, unlike chicken.

[greygarious]

Speaking of which, I've never understood that. Why is duck, which is raised in flocks and presumably as prone to avian diseases and parasites as chicken or turkey, safe to eat rare when pink chicken or a little blood at the drumstick joint rings alarms?

[alkapal]

on thanksgiving, we had a duck and it was roasted not nearly for 3+ hours.

my query: how long should this roast, and what about the flaps of fat?

[MMRuth]

I would highly recommend this method (link in thread):

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/501881

[MMRuth]

Oh - and I would remove those fatty bits you refer to.

[JonParker]

I have used MMRuth's method with great success. It's amazing.

[alkapal]

thanks. i cooked it for 3 hours, on a roasting rack over a roasting pan. i'd not ever chance using a jelly roll pan, although i know there's more heat "exposure" that way. i did not slit the skin, but it still rendered lots of fat, and skin was crispy. i cooked at the higher temp of 325-350....

[smtucker]

I have had great success with this method of roasting duck. You simmer the duck in stock or water, then roast. Delicious crispy skin, moist meat, and less spatter in the oven:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sa...

Refrigerate the resulting stock, skim off and reserve the fat, then make soup!

[kattyeyes]

Phone call to mom for assistance on this one: Boil together giblet, neck and liver for gravy. Throw away the neck. Keep the juice for the gravy.

Grind up the giblet, heart and liver, then add chopped onion and breadcrumbs with Bell's Seasoning. Can add chestnuts or mushrooms, too.

Can you guess I loved this stuff growing up, but had no idea of the "secret ingredients"...HA HA!

[alkapal]

thanks. query: roasting time? 3 1/2 hours for a duck?

[JoanN]

I think the problem here, alkapal, is that so many recipes call either for some kind of pre-roasting steaming or boiling water treatment or else cut the duck up part way through roasting so that the breast can be removed before the legs and thighs. I just looked through about 6 cookbooks and the only recipe I found that put a whole duck directly in the oven and took a whole duck out at the end was from Bittman's How to Cook Everything. He suggests 350F for 75 minutes (pricking the skin every 15 minutes for the first half hour) with temperature raised to 400F for the last 10 minutes. Temperature in the thigh (he says) should be 180F.

[HaagenDazs]

Just an FYI: there is no such thing as a "giblet" in the way that you refer to it. The term in general is used to describe the organs typically included in the cavity of poultry. In other words, hearts, livers & gizzards are all giblets, there is not one single item that is called a giblet.

[kattyeyes]

Got it. I was actually responding to alkapal's "what to do with one giblet, neck and liver?" I have never used the giblets (see, fast learner) on my own, so I didn't pay much attention to whether it was singular or plural, but that's good to know--thanks. My family always used giblets to make stuffing and gravy and it was delicious.

So, alkapal, did you make stuffing, too?

[HaagenDazs]

Oh I see. ;-) Well, now maybe you both know! ;-)

[alkapal]

need roasting whole duck times and fat-cutting techniques, as i do want duck fat. don't need info re glazes, etc. but thanks, k.

[kchurchill5]

I thought the Alton gave some good tips.. The glaze was just what I did is all. We followed Altons recips and had success.

[kchurchill5]

My neighbor and I did this for a dinner, it really was good. And I like Alton...
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/mighty-duck-recipe/index.html

If I remember correctly, I did make a simple orange marmalade, white wine and fresh herbs for a light sauce over the duck as well. And I think we used spinach.

It was work, but a great recipe. This was another I had marked.
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/rec...