

Duck has experienced a resurgence of popularity in recent years among restaurant and home kitchens alike, but usually cooked in pieces and not whole. Breasts are seared and easily pan-roasted to medium-rare and sliced thin for serving. Legs are braised or cooked “confit” (a word that’s come to mean long, slow cooking in fat). Cooking duck parts, although delicious, unfortunately strips you of the joy and pride felt when roasting a whole bird. Ironically, despite the perceived high degree of difficulty, roasting a whole duck is extremely easy.
The two most popular breeds today are Muscovy and Pekin. Muscovy is the larger of the two, has plump breasts, a rich, distinctive flavour and much less fat. It is Europe’s most popular breed, especially in France. Pekin originated in China, is smaller, 30 percent fattier and also extremely flavourful. Pekin is famous for the dish Peking Duck, that has been prepared in Beijing since the Imperial era and is now considered one of China’s national foods. Peking Duck is prepared by pumping air into the bird to separate the skin from the flesh, then soaked in boiling water for a short while before it is hung to dry in open air. While it is hung, the bird is glazed with a layer of honey or maltose syrup. Having been left to stand for 24 hours, the duck is roasted in an oven until it turns shiny brown. Just walk down Spadina Ave. in Chinatown and you will see hundreds, if not thousands, of Peking Ducks hanging in restaurant windows ready to be consumed.
Leave the complicated Peking Duck for the Chinese restaurants to prepare and instead slow roast a duck – it’s easy and yields meat that is moist and juicy, surrounded by crispy skin. I suggest roasting at 250 degrees F for about 4 hours, then increasing the temperature to 350 to 375 for another half hour or more to achieve a crispy skin. The purpose of such low heat for such a long time is to allow the fat to render while cooking the legs, which would otherwise be too tough if quickly roasted.
Slow roasting a duck yields crispy skin and meat that is moist and juicy. One reason home cooks may have abandoned roast duck is that they perceive a high degree of difficulty in getting it right; trust us, it’s not.
Cooking Instructions
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F, and place a rack in the centre of the oven. Remove the neck and giblets from the duck. Trim the duck with a sharp knife, cutting away the large deposits of excess fat and skin that hangs at both ends of the duck. Don’t discard the fat! The duck fat can and should be rendered and used to fry or roast vegetables. Remove the neck and giblets from the duck. Rinse and pat dry.
Salt the cavity and the skin of the duck. Pierce the skin all over in 20 to 30 places with a sharp metal skewer (or if you must, prick the skin with the tip of a sharp knife). Hold the skewer or knife almost parallel to the duck while piercing it to avoid puncturing the duck meat. You only want to pierce the skin. Place the duck breast-side down on a rack in a roasting pan and place in oven. After 1 hour, prick the duck thoroughly on one side, turn it over, and prick thoroughly on the other side. Continue to roast with the newly turned side up. Repeat this process every hour.
After 4 hours of roasting, prick and turn once again. This time increase the oven temperature to 350 to 375 degrees F. Continue roasting, pricking and turning once for an additional 30 to 90 minutes. The amount of additional roasting time at 350 degrees F is up to you... Do you want a juicier finished product or a crispier finished product? If you roast the duck at 350F for 15 minutes on one side, prick and turn, then roast for 15 minutes on the other side, the duck will be very juicy and slightly crisp. If you roast the duck for 30 minutes on one side, prick and turn, and 30 minutes on the other side, the duck will be juicy and crisp. If you roast the duck for 45 minutes on one side, prick and turn, and 45 minutes on the other side, it will be pretty juicy and very crisp. The 30min/30min method is probably a great compromise.
Chef’s Secret: The duck is done when the upper part of the drumsticks are soft when pressed... some would say “squishy.”
Addition: Brush a glaze over the duck in the last hour of roasting. A simple mixture of honey and orange will do the trick. Other flavour affinities include: figs, ginger, hoisin sauce, peaches, pomegranates, port wine and soy sauce.
Mario Fiorucci
~ is the Co-Founder of The Healthy Butcher
www.thehealthybutcher.com
For Mom and Baby
by Julie Watson