Whole Duck

MJH

I'm cooking a whole duck tomorrow in addition to the Turkey. I'm undecided abt Egging the duck. Anybody have helpful duck tips?

Cymbaline65

Yes. Did the same thing last year. Smoked using Apple wood.  Turned out great. Make sure you use a drip pan as well prick the skin to keep the fat draining. Indirect, 375. 

MJH

Did you score the breasts and turn it every hour?

MJH

Also, planning doing the Turkey vertical and the Duck in a V on a large Egg. Is that how you made it fit?

Little Steven

Duck is great on a chicken stand inverted and indirect. You can score or pierce the breast skin but a lot of the fat will render out through the neck cavity. The breast will cook slower than the rear end so you can end up with the breast not overdone. Cut the flap of breast skin tight around the front of the breast. I'll try and find a pic.

Cymbaline65

I did the duck on the grid over a drip pan. Trimmed the fat per LS' comment. I used a trussing needle to pierce the skin. Here's a pic probably about an hour or so into the cook.

Cymbaline65

BTW, the skin was very crispy but it did not hold the crispiness for very long so you want the rest to be about 15 minutes - no longer.

Little Steven

Cymbaline65 said:

I did the duck on the grid over a drip pan. Trimmed the fat per LS' comment. I used a trussing needle to pierce the skin. Here's a pic probably about an hour or so into the cook.

I love duck but I want what's in that pan underneath. Don't even care if you peeled it.

Charlesmaneri

I did 3 ducks on my Large I cooked indirect plate setter leggs up at 350 until a inteurnal temp of 165 here is a pic   

CPARKTX

Cook duck regularly, love it. Piece skin (not into meat) to allow fat to render. Put uncovered in refrigerator overnight if you can...really helps dry (and crisp) skin. Use a drip pan.

I cook indirect around 350 dome and kick up the temperature the final 20-30 minutes to make 425 to try to get skin as crisp as possible. I've never flipped, can't comment on that.

caliking

Little Steven said:

Cymbaline65 said:

I did the duck on the grid over a drip pan. Trimmed the fat per LS' comment. I used a trussing needle to pierce the skin. Here's a pic probably about an hour or so into the cook.

I love duck but I want what's in that pan underneath. Don't even care if you peeled it.


Pommes frites made in duck fat are phenomenally good. Save that fat for future use!

Little Steven

You cook apples in duck fat Cali?

Cymbaline65

@LS: Actually, it was left over veggies and I didn't know what to do with them. I just threw them in the pan to see what would happen. Not enough fat rendered to do frites and the smoke I think would have made the fat kinda funky. I actually did two ducks that year - one on the Egg and the other, basted with an apple cider reduction on the <gasp> Weber kettle.

MJH

Oh what a happy day. Thanks for the help. I'm going for it.  If any of you have a great orange sauce recipe, would love to read it.

solon

Use the Orange sauce recipe from the NY Times cookbook

500

I just watched the old Good Eats "Mighty Duck" episode, and now I want to cook one. Any other tips to offer from those in the know?

Canugghead

my spatched peking duck cook from 2011...

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 SWMBO's home blend 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... 

 

 
SWMBO 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 gave 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

Deckhand

I never pierced duck skin until this Thanksgiving... and never got really crispy skin.  This year I pierced it thoroughly... as well as carefully separating the skin from the breast meat using a fillet knife.  Seasoned under the skin and set two birds upright... 2 hrs later (when the Egg finally reached 400°) the skin was crispy and most of the fat had rendered.

Little Steven

Looking for a pic but duck works great inverted on a chicken stand. Breast stays a little less cooked and the fat renders really well through the neck opening.

bigbadben

Recently googled "pulled duck". Basically cook 300 F for 4 hrs. I need to try it! 

Canugghead

way to resurrect an old thread ... this reminds me of @Charlesmaneri , haven't seem him around since May 2015, hope he's well.

RalphieBoy

I think I pulled a Bone Head. I try to research previous post instead of bothering others. I didn’t this time. Whole duck. I started the brine this past Wednesday. Cranberry and apple juice with the sticks and leaves.
Do I have overkill with the bacon?


CPARKTX said:

Cook duck regularly, love it. Piece skin (not into meat) to allow fat to render. Put uncovered in refrigerator overnight if you can...really helps dry (and crisp) skin. Use a drip pan.

I cook indirect around 350 dome and kick up the temperature the final 20-30 minutes to make 425 to try to get skin as crisp as possible. I've never flipped, can't comment on that.

SGH

MJH said:

Oh what a happy day. Thanks for the help. I'm going for it.  

I know I’m a little late here, but how did the duck turn out?

RalphieBoy

I’m cooking it tonight. Will I need a Five gallon bucket drip pan? I don’t know why I thought I need a little extra fat. I spray most thing with duck fat. I’m going to use Royal Oak with Sugar Maple chunks. We will see.

RalphieBoy

OMG what a Cluster. My worse cook ever. I should had researched beforehand. I thought well it’s like a chicken. How hard is it. I brined it 3 days. I don’t think it penetrate the skin. The duck skin was like armor. Then adding bacon made it that much harder. I had that sucker on 325 degrees for 3 Hours. After all said in done the bird was great. The meat was tender and not on the wild side. My wife even liked it. 
It was indeed a cluster but lesson learned. 

fishlessman

try one low and slow 220 dgrees direct on a raised grid, wait for the skin to get good and crispy and dont worry about the internal temps even if its up near 200

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/237371/duck-with-wild-rice

RalphieBoy

fishlessman said:

try one low and slow 220 dgrees direct on a raised grid, wait for the skin to get good and crispy and dont worry about the internal temps even if its up near 200

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/237371/duck-with-wild-rice

Thank you