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A Good Roast Duck

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A Good Roast Duck


The Cook and the Gardener:
A Year of Recipes and Writings
from the French Countryside
by Amanda Hesser, 1999, W. W. Norton & Company

“For some unknown reason I felt I had finally arrived as a cook when I could roast a duck successfully. The duck, after all, is a significant culinary icon in France. The French buy their bread, their cheese, and their charcuterie, but any decent French housewife can roast a duck well, so that its skin is crispy and buttery like puff pastry, its breast meat tender and juicy with a gamy redolence, and its wings fried by the duck fat collected in the base of the roasting pan.
Actually, Frenchman Jean Anthèlme de Brillat-Savarin is often quoted as having said, ‘We can learn to be cooks, but we must be born knowing how to roast.’
Maybe he was only talking about the French, because I certainly learned how.
The French have an edge when it comes to duck roasting, partly because their
ducks are different from ours – they’re much less fatty – and because the smaller French oven most home cooks have provides the necessary enclosure to crisp the skin all around the bird. But technique also plays an important role. Duck should not be drowned in all sorts of marinades and seasonings. One herb, such as thyme, should be chosen and used generously. A duck should be roasted carefully, not
stuck in the oven and forgotten. In short, pamper it.

Serves 4

One 5-pound duck
Coarse or kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons butter
10-12 sprigs thyme
2 cups Autumn Stock or water

1. Heat the oven to 450 degrees F.
2. Remove any internal organs from the duck’s cavity and reserve the neck, heart and liver. Using a butcher’s knife or a large chef’s knife, chop off the wing tips with a strong downward stroke at the joint. Save the neck and wing tips for making stock (Note: If you do not already have Autumn Stock, you can make a stock using the neck and wing tips while the duck is roasting. Follow the Autumn Stock instructions, halving the ingredients and substituting the neck and wing tips for the carcass. Use just 1 quart of water.)
3. Rinse the duck under cool water and pat it dry with a soft towel. Season with salt and pepper both inside and out, then truss the bird firmly with kitchen twine.
4. Find a heavy roasting pan large enough so that the bird fits comfortably without being cramped. Rub 1 tablespoon of the butter over the base of the pan and make a bed of thyme (all but three sprigs) on top of the butter. Lay the bird on top of the thyme and put in the heated oven to roast. About every 5 minutes for the first 20 minutes, turn the duck a quarter turn to brown it evenly on all sides, ending with the breast on top. The breast will inflate as the layer of fat beneath it begins to melt. To ensure that the skin does not burst open, use a skewer to make a small incision in the skin out of which the fat can run. Baste the duck with the fat collecting in the bottom of the pan each time you turn the duck. After the first 20 minutes of roasting, turn down the oven to 350 degrees F. to finish toasting, about another 45 minutes.
5.  By now the duck skin should be turning a deep golden color, and the fat in the pan should be sizzling exuberantly. This is good. Continue basting. If your oven cooks unevenly, change the position of your pan, turning the pan front to back, or side to side, as needed.
6.  Meanwhile, strip the leaves from the remaining thyme sprigs and reserve. In a small skillet, melt the remaining butter and heat until foaming. Then add the liver and heart and sauté for 3 to 4 minutes, until they are firm and lightly browned on both sides. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly. Then cut them into small (about 1/8-inch) cubes.
7. The duck is perfectly cooked when the bird’s skin is a dark mahogany-brown and the meat is tender. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh should read 160 to 165 degrees F. – remember, the duck will continue to cook once removed from the oven. Or, using prongs to poke into the side of the duck, lift the bird from the pan so that the juices run from the chest cavity. They should run clear. If they are still pink, continue roasting. Transfer the duck to the cutting board and let it rest, covered loosely with aluminum foil, for 10 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, make the thyme gravy: Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat from the roasting pan and discard the thyme sprigs. (Reserve the fat, later straining it and letting it cool completely – you can use it like butter for frying.) Add the stock to the roasting pan and bring it to a boil on the stove over high heat. Stir with a wooden spoon to scrape up the pan drippings, where the flavor has concentrated into sticky blotches on the pan. This is called deglazing. Reduce the stock over high heat to a syrupy sauce, about
10 minutes; it should make about 1/2 cup of gravy. This may not seem like much, but taste it: It should be intense, syrupy, almost sweet from the caramelized drippings. Stir in the chopped liver and heart and the thyme leaves.
9. Carve the duck into four pieces. You may want to slice the breast thin so everyone can have some. Arrange the duck on a large serving platter decorated with thyme sprigs, and pass the gravy separately.

Note:  Save the carcass and make more stock.