Rotisserie Duck / Egg Tips

jfine1 said:

Folks - doing a little more crowdsourcing in advance of cooking a couple ducks on the egg tonight. I am planning on using my new Joetisserie for the first time and want to see if anyone else has had experience with this and duck .... should I include smoke or not ? Assume plate setter with a drip tray to catch all the fat ? Any other pointers ? 

@jfine1 a couple thoughts. With the Joetisserie, the challenge is balancing outside appearance with internal doneness. And in the case of duck, you need enough time to render fat, while not burning the skin. Not an easy thing to accomplish because we're talking direct cooking here. So what i do is heap up the charcoal to the backside of the firebox. that gives you the same heat in the egg, but less exposure to the "flame" for the skin. also - there is A LOT of drippings and you need to find a way to avoid them going straight to the base of the egg (remember, the charcoal is not spread evenly across the fire grate, so the dripping don't burn off like they normally would upon hitting the charcoal). I line the base of the egg (below the fire grate, so as not to obstruct airflow) with foil. it's a completely different way of cooking, so throw everything you know about raised direct cooking out the window. 

Richard Fl said:

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A GOOD DRIP PAN, LOTS GREASE.  ALSO I WILL SOMETIMES TAKE  A FEW TEA BAGS PLACE CONTENTS IN AN ALUMINUM POUCH WITH A FEW HOLES AND TOSS ON FOR SMOKE.  http://www.greeneggers.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=1196415&catid=1

Very cool cook. Can't believe I missed it the first time.

Focker said:

You're jumping right into the deep end, with no floaties or supervision.

Personally, I'd go to the store and sub out the ducks for chicken.  Much more forgiving on your first spin.

If you're committed, slash the skin, and toss some seasoned taters in your drip pan.  

Mound up your fire to one side of the spit.  The Joetisserie direct Egg setup will work against you on this cook, but you could work around it.  Stir the taters every 15 min or so to keep the duck fat from burning.  I always start slow 250 for an hr, and work my way up the temp to finish, usually 350-400 at the end.

With the taters in the pan, I wouldn't add smoke.

I commend you for attempting this for guests without a trial run, nothing worse than bad duck, well there is one thing, lol...good luck.

 

Duck fat and taters...Nothing better!

Focker said:

You're jumping right into the deep end, with no floaties or supervision.

Personally, I'd go to the store and sub out the ducks for chicken.  Much more forgiving on your first spin.


 

This.

Also, I have never cooked indirect with my Joetisserie.  That is going to make things crowded and you are going to lose one of the big advantages of using the Joetisserie.  Personally, I would suggest buying a good pack of bone in, skin on chicken breasts.  Marinate them, season them heavily (you can use different seasonings per breast) and cook them on the Joetisserie at about 275-300.  Add a little smoke at the beginning.  You will be amazed at the color, flavor, and the ease of the cook.  Here is one I did recently.