Roast duck

I want to serve 1/2 roast duck in small bistro. Can anyone give me advice on how to roast the ducks in advance of orders?

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Eric_M_16062

I wrote a huge reply to this after far too many beers last night. Decided I'd better wait, hah.

My advice: don't. It's an awkward portion that cooks so differently from end to end that I would avoid it altogether. I'm not you, I'm certainly not saying it can't, nor shouldn't be done; though, why the headache?

I know you said roast, though I would confit Chicken with duck fat then finish that sucker on the grill, or oven then salamander - I'm not sure how big your place is, does it have a grill? I'm a sucker for smoked: anything. If you don't have a grill, maybe render some bacon fat into your confit?

I'm not anyone to listen to, really, and I don't want to step on your toes miss; my only thought here, is every whole roast duck I've ever had: sucked. I want my duck breast to have had the fat rendered out nice and gradually then the breast to be no more than mid rare, by that time the legs are inedible and vice verse. There's so much connective tissue in the duck legs it makes for a tough cook. That's why the most common use is a confit: there's a reason. Chicken is more forgiving, especially of you par-cure and confit the bird, it's going to give a lot of love right back. Doing so in a mix of bacon/ duck fat will give all the richness you're looking for.

That said, if I were in your position reading this I'd say fuck it and do the half duck anyway, just to see. So my short answer after a long one is: Confit then (char)Broil. If you're going to roast, brine the whole bird then cook it under 200*f in a deck oven.

Samuel_68313

I mostly agree with Eric, not a massive fan of roast duck and 1/2 a duck is a huge portion. Awkward to do for service as well. I think duck is close to impossible to roast well, mostly because I like the breast rare, the skin crispy, and the legs slow cooked for about 24 hours.

Personally, if you're intent on doing half a duck, I'd do legs and breast seperately and then assemble it as a half. I would confit the legs, then cook the breasts in advance and hold in water bath. Then just drop both in deep fryer for service to crisp up the skin. Guess it's not a roast duck as such, but you'd get the best of both worlds.

Eric_M_16062

My problem with par cooked/ holding protein in a water bath waiting for orders is what you do if you prep 20 and sell 8: lose money or get creative. It all depends on circumstance and context, I heard 1/2 a bird so I'm assuming family style service for however many.

IF that's the case, what I feel makes sense is a charge per guest or ounce of food. Serve a duck breast Pastrami (Procuitto, Cotechino... Whatever you want, but cured or at least salvageable for another day) sliced over a classic French Cassoulet with a leg confit, finished however you wanted: that's on the cook, though there's less chance for wasted product. You could even do the breast seared and sliced on top if you really wanted.

Frees you up, just be sure acidity is in balance.