LC-inspired Peking Duck (pic heavy)

Canugghead

LC, thanks for the inspiration and recipe, I finally did my peking duck this weekend, not as good as yours but passable. Not sure I'll do it again any time soon though, WAY too much work and mess!

link to LC's original post...
http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&Itemid=55&func=view&catid=1&id=1081731

a little digression, ribs from last night...



royal bath ingredients...





rather than dunking, i poured over the bird set on a grid over a large basin in the sink, reboiled and poured again. repeated 3 or 4 times...



after drying in fridge overnight...



my variation, after the overnighter, it looked and smelled kind of bland, so i brushed the bird lightly with wife's favourite home blend duck sauce just before egging...



propped up the breasts and legs with foil-wrapped plumbing copper to maximise skin exposure and reduce cleavage...





used TJV's AR for the cook, pizza stone on level 1 with plumbing copper and shallow drip pan, bird on level 3, threw in two chunks of cherry and started cooking at 375, unfortunate I got distracted by the Birthday Mini Egg (see another post to come) and the temp ran high to 425. pulled at 190+ legs and 160+ breasts...





DW making the pancakes...



leg skin very crispy and no fat, breast skins not as crispy but still good, see the fat under the breast skin? should've watched the temp and give it more time to render the fat, also wondered if piercing the breast skin and blanching longer would've helped. meat was juicy and delicious...





to summarise, it was a fun and tasty cook in spite of the work and mess. bonus: collected lots of liquid gold (duck fat!), meat for lettuce wrapped duck tomorrow, bones for soup!

thanks for reading this far, have a great week! and thanks again to LC!

Gary

doubleapex

that skin looks amazing...nice work.

Austin Smoker

Man o Man that looks awesome! Great color on the skin.

Le Oeuf Vert

Beautiful color. Looks like it was a great meal.

Little Steven

Gary,

Just beautiful!

Steve

snake701uk

wow, looks great. Since I saw LC's post then I have been planning it, but not so easy. My compliments!
Andy

cookn biker

Thanks for sharing Gary, looks really good!

Rolling Egg

Great color on that bird! I wouldn't know where to begin on a duck but you sure made it look great.

Eggsakley

Looks wonderful. Great job.

MCR

Gary,

Look Gooood!

Mainegg

Nice Gary.. have not tackled anything like that yet..

chocdoc

Gorgeous Gary!

Canugghead

Belated thanks for the compliments, miss you all oldtimers.

caliking

Wow, Gary! So glad this cook was resurrected. Definitely bookmarked. 

Canugghead

Another crack at Peking duck.

Royal bath


Scalded multiple times, reboiled after each cycle


Marinated with hoisin based sauce and fridge dried overnight.  Low n slow in Traeger five hours, cranked up temp last hour. Aimed for tender meat and bite through skin. Pricked skin few times with Thermapen tip to drain/release fat.


Everyone enjoyed it

lousubcap

Great cook.  Still got it ten plus years on!  Impressive finish shot!

caliking

Nice!! That looks beautiful, Gary. My mouth is watering. 

Canugghead

@lousubcap @caliking
Thanks, probably shouldn't wait so long for the next one, can't guarantee another ten+ laps around the sun 😂

JohnInCarolina

It seems your skills have improved over the last decade

Very nicely done my friend!

ValleyGirl

Wow, I'm drooling.  That looks awesome!

Thapco

was watching a  cooking show this past week and it was about Chinese cooking.  They said that Peking  Duck is NOT duck but a different way of cooking beef.   They said that it is a contraction of an original word such as duc and everybody seemed to think it was duck and it went from there.  
Don't know but I always thought it was the bird duck.  Seems everybody else thinks that. 

RyanStl

JohnInCarolina said:

It seems your skills have improved over the last decade

Very nicely done my friend!

Well, he switched from BGE to Traeger.

Canugghead

@dstearn @CTMike congrats on your new toy but shame on me and you'll for cooking with pellet poopers. I couldn't find this vvv in my local supermarkets, what's your excuse? 😉

CTMike

Canugghead said:

@dstearn @CTMike congrats on your new toy but shame on me and you'll for cooking with pellet poopers. I couldn't find this vvv in my local supermarkets, what's your excuse? 😉

I thought I’d get a pass since my daughter in law is Canadian. The boss is actually up in Ottawa for a week visiting the grandkids - I’m bummed that i couldn’t go and won’t get to see them again until June, hence the day drinking that has commenced.

Canugghead

CTMike said:

Canugghead said:

@dstearn @CTMike congrats on your new toy but shame on me and you'll for cooking with pellet poopers. I couldn't find this vvv in my local supermarkets, what's your excuse? 😉

I thought I’d get a pass since my daughter in law is Canadian. The boss is actually up in Ottawa for a week visiting the grandkids - I’m bummed that i couldn’t go and won’t get to see them again until June, hence the day drinking that has commenced.

All our kids and grandkids live in same town! When you visit Ottawa you can load up on USDA prime briskets and trade with @GrateEggspectations for maple leaf lump 😀

CTMike

Canugghead said:

CTMike said:

Canugghead said:

@dstearn @CTMike congrats on your new toy but shame on me and you'll for cooking with pellet poopers. I couldn't find this vvv in my local supermarkets, what's your excuse? 😉

I thought I’d get a pass since my daughter in law is Canadian. The boss is actually up in Ottawa for a week visiting the grandkids - I’m bummed that i couldn’t go and won’t get to see them again until June, hence the day drinking that has commenced.

All our kids and grandkids live in same town! When you visit Ottawa you can load up on USDA prime briskets and trade with @GrateEggspectations for maple leaf lump 😀

I have been able to get the sugar maple lump at the local Ace hardware for a little over $20 US per bag. They have to special order it but only takes a couple days. 

I used to have my kid grab 4 bags at Lowe’s every time he went up there, but they don’t seem to carry it anymore. I love this stuff, very mild smoke flavor. 

Currently only have 3 bags - getting low:

Canugghead

@CTMike less hands on cooking with pellet pooper means even more time for day drinking, that's your real excuse, don't 'blame canada' or your DIL!

lousubcap

@CTMike - I order around 3 8kg bags of the Basques a year as I really like it. The aroma does have a sweetness to me but maybe I'm faking myself there.  I Have to source from a south of the border supplier.  Shipping is not included.

I believe @Canugghead was talking about Maple Leaf Charcoal which I have  searched for for years south of the border with no success.  If you can score that it would be worth a try (or so I have been told).

CTMike

lousubcap said:

@CTMike - I order around 3 8kg bags of the Basques a year as I really like it. The aroma does have a sweetness to me but maybe I'm faking myself there.  I Have to source from a south of the border supplier.  Shipping is not included.

I believe @Canugghead was talking about Maple Leaf Charcoal which I have  searched for for years south of the border with no success.  If you can score that it would be worth a try (or so I have been told).

You mean this stuff:

Have 3 or 4 bags of that also.

lousubcap

@CTMike How does it compare to the Basques?

CTMike

lousubcap said:

@CTMike How does it compare to the Basques?

To my unsophisticated nose, it is not as sweet smelling - but both seem to have a very neutral smoke flavor. I’m a fan of both but like the Basque’s better.