Whole duck

Johan_Edstrom_5586

Cooking ideas?

Chris_Young_80640

You have to choose between legs and breast—unless you cook separate. You also have the challenge of render the fat. Here is what I've done in the past:

(1) Make lots of little pin pricks all over the skin to create escape channels for rendered oil. A steel wire dog grooming brush is great for this (use a new one!).

(2) Place duck into freezer for 1 hr to freeze outside layers of flesh.

(3) Place duck into nuclear hot oven for 10 minutes to crisp skin and render as much fat as possible. 

(4) Sous vide the duck and cook for 5 hours at 136 °F / 58 °C.

(5) Remove and rest for 30 minutes. (Add glaze of dilute maple syrup and spices if desired at this point)

(6) Meanwhile, turn your oven back up to nuclear hot. Convection if possible.

(7) Insert duck into oven and blast for 5 minutes to re-crisp skin and finish rendering as much fat as possible.

(8) Rest for 5 minutes, then carve and enjoy.