Christmas Roasted Duck

 Keith and I were doing our last visit to Costco before Christmas and saw that they had whole duck for $3.99 per lb. We didn't have a plan yet for Christmas dinner, so we decided...duck...why not?

It seemed like a good idea at the time, and then we got home and I started looking into how to cook this sucker. I started with Julia Child's "Duck L'Orange," followed quickly by someone trying to do her recipe and failing miserably. Not encouraging. I then checked out Alton Brown, he disassembled his duck before cooking, very practical, but I wanted the whole impressive bird for presentation. I moved on to Jamie Oliver, who always makes everything look incredibly easy, and true to form, he whipped up a Christmas duck without breaking a sweat. There was quite a variance in techniques and attitudes toward the process. I decided to take the things I found helpful from all of them and combine them into my own attempt. I was pleased with the end result. I have decided that duck is not an ingredient I need to be afraid of trying and Aaron has declared it the most tasty bird he has ever eaten. Which from my #3 who this week has decided that he doesn't eat lentils anymore, is very high praise. Duck goes really well with potatoes and some greens. Joe brought his best potato game, which is his official job at Via Cannuccia. They were amazing. Maybe he will let me post the recipe later. This recipe also creates a lovely pan sauce that I am really fond of. Don't forget to put your duck carcas into a pot with some water after you carve it. The carcas makes some lovely broth that we have already used for soup this week.

Christmas Roasted Duck:

Ingredients:

4-5lb whole duck (with gibletts)

1 cup orange juice

1 cup pineapple juice

15 peppercorns

1/2 cup salt

4 medium purple onions

1 tablespoon ground cloves

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp smoked paprika

salt and pepper to taste

sprig of rosemary 

1 cup water

2 cups grapes

1 cup dried figs

1 cup red wine

Directions:

1. Brine the duck: in a large ziploc bag combine orange juice, pineapple juice, peppercorns and salt. Close the bag and swish the ingredients around to dissolve the salt. Remove the duck from its packaging, give it a rinse and remove the neck and giblets (set aside for later). Trim any excess fat from the end of the duck and pull any excess fat from the cavity. (Julia's duck video is excellent for more on this) Put the duck in the ziploc bag with the brine. Press to remove as much air as possible from the bag and put it in the refrigerator. Allow the duck to sit in the brine for at least 6 hours and up to three days. 

2. Prepare the roast: Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. (I know this sounds bonkers, hang in there with me) Get out a roasting pan that will fit your duck but will also provide some room around the duck to add the grapes and figs later on. Quarter your onions and lay them flat side down in the bottom of the roasting pan. Retrieve your giblets and put them in the middle of the roasting pan in the midst of the onions. Get your duck and remove it from the brine, place it on top of the onions and giblets. The onions act as a kind of "rack" for the duck, and they cook down into a soft jammy consistency with all the roasting fat that makes an amazing sauce at the end. 

With your duck in place, use a sharp knife to score the skin on the breasts. Duck is a very lean meat, but there is a lot of excess fat under the skin. Scoring the skin, especially down near the wings and legs, will help release the fat. Combining this with starting the bird at 500 degrees crisps up the skin. 

Purple onions are preferable but of course, I only had white

After scoring your duck, rub the skin all over with the cloves, garlic, paprika, salt and pepper. Don't forget to season the inside cavity. *note: I know this seems like a copious amount of ground cloves, again, trust me. At first it smells very strong, but in the end it is perfection* Place the rosemary sprig inside the cavity. Pour 1 cup of water into the roasting pan.

3. Roast the duck: Place your duck on the middle rack of a 500 degree oven and roast for 20 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and continue to cook for 1 hour 15 minutes. Ater 1 hr, 15 minutes, remove the duck from the oven. Baste the duck with the fat in the pan, then drain any excess duck fat into a jar to save for later. *note: duck fat is amazing to cook with later. Put the jar in your refrigerator and use the fat to brown vegetables for soup, start a stir fry etc..* Add the grapes and figs to the pan around the duck. Return to the oven and continue to cook about 30 minutes or until the duck has reached the internal temperature of 165 degrees. You can also know that your duck is done if you tip it and the juices that run out of the carcas are clear and not red. 

4. Rest the duck and make the sauce: Remove your duck from the pan and let it rest on your serving platter or cutting board. Also remove some of the more whole-looking grapes, figs and onions and set aside with the resting duck.  If your roasting pan can go on the stove burner, add 1 cup of wine and 1 cup of water to the pan and scrape the pan to release all the browned bits from the bottom, (that is the flavor). If your pan is ceramic or glass, do the same and then add all the contents of your roasting pan: liquid, soft onions, neck and giblets, soft grapes and figs to a saucepan to finish the sauce. Bring your roasting pan contents to a simmer, continue to scrape the sides of the roasting pan to release the caramelized bits form the bottom. Use a potato masher to crush up the duck neck, giblets, onions, grapes and figs to create a jammy sauce. Simmer 10 minutes. After the sauce has simmered for 10 minutes, run it through a fine-meshed metal sieve. Use a spoon to push the fruit pulp through and scrape the underside of the sieve to make sure you get all that jammy goodness. Discard the bones and remaining un-sieved fruit. Carve your duck and serve with the sauce. 

Just a note: These are the new family ducks that live in my brother's garden. They in no way influenced my inspiration to cook duck for Christmas, but I am sure they would be 1. horrified if they knew and 2. delicious if I cooked them like this. 😂