cooking duck

KC81

what is everyone's favourite way of cooking duck.
i always find it too fatty. any tips?

tSubh Dearg

I roast it, but put it on a rack when I do it. Use an ordinary cooling rack for cakes etc and put it on a baking tray or in a roasting dish.

When I do just duck breasts, I do the same method but score the fatty side before roasting. Then I cook it fat side down first and turn it over after 15/20 mins to do the other side to let the skin crisp up. It's yummy.

Alun

When I do duck breast, I first do the skin side, then flick it over and put in a hot oven to finish (15-20 minutes depending on desired pinkness / size of duck breasts). You need an oven safe frying pan (non non-stick, no plastic handle) for this though. I also usually get rid of most of the fat that's accumulated before putting it in the oven (and reserve it for roasting spuds!).

Shabadu

A really cool way to do it is pre heat your oven, prod her all over with a skewer, pour over 3 or so kettles of boiling water to remove some fat.

Make a cone with tinfoil that you can put in the cavity of the bird, then put it sitting up on the base of the cone in the bottom of the oven. You'll have to take the grids out. It gets the bird really crispy the whole way around and works brilliantly for peking duck.

Don't forget to keep the drained off fat! Store it in the freezer and use it for making confit, or for roasting spuds.

Ponster

If you have the time and money then try a confit of duck. Basically you cook the thigh/leg in duck/goose fat, rendering the fat from the meat.

It takes about 4 hours, you need to cover the leg in fat (so you'll have to buy extra duck fat though some people use wine) and your place will smell of duck for days but damn if it ain't great food.