Tea-Smoking a Duck today

certified_prime

I've got a whole duck which brined overnight in a salt-n-sugar brine with various asian spices and tea.

The Recipe

Instead of the camphor wood, I'll use a smoking mixture of rice, sugar, lapsong suchong tea, and cinnamon sticks. It makes a very fine wispy smoke, and the skin comes out a beautiful caramel color.

I'll set the platesetter legs up, and put a roasting pan on it to catch any of the duck fat which renders out. It smokes for about 45 minutes around 350 degrees, and the duck should come out a perfect medium all the way through.

This is what it looked like last time (altho I did it on my Weber last time...it was before I got the BGE)

Little Steven

scarsdale,

Very cool! Do you put the smoke mix in foil?

Steve

Z man

Very cool idea for the smoke. I did a duck for Christmas - it turned out great, but I would have liked it to be a little less smokey, even though it was delicious. How do you put together your smoke concoction? Wrapped in foil? Moist? What do you use the duck fat for afterwards? I use it to sautee potatoes.
Thanks and good luck.

certified_prime

yes, the smoke mixture goes in foil. With the sugar in there at the high temp, it turns into a solid black carbon mass when it is all burned up, so the tinfoil helps keep it together.

certified_prime

I didn't have a catcher pan under the duck last time, so I wasn't able to collect any duck fat. We'll see how much I get this time.

We're going to roast some red potatoes tomorrow...if there is any duck fat that is usable, I'll convince my wife to throw it in there.

Chef Charles

Scarsdale,

This looks like a real interesting cook. Please share with us the results.

Tom

Richard Fl

Looks like a great method. Here is one way I like to do them. The schezuan pepper corns and salt are a great flavor for dipping the cooked meat in.

http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=596159&catid=1

eenie meenie

scarsdale, I tried tea smoked duck once and was disappointed that the fat didn't render enoough to get really crispy skin. The skin had a great color, but was thick and only crispy on the very outer portion. I can't wait to see how your tea smoked duck comes out on the egg. Be sure and show a pic of the skin.

BigBadger

Lapsang souchong is one of my fave teas. Very smoky but its a pine resin smoke. Curious how the duck will taste. I'm also curious about the use of camphor wood and brown sugar to smoke. I understand that in order to get very crispy skin the chefs will baste in very hot oil constantly for the last several minutes then serve immediately.