Roast Duck

A duck scalded, dried a day, and roasted long and low so the fat leaves before the skin crisps.

Duck. Not vegetarian — contains duck.

Ingredients

• 1 whole duck, about 2.2 kg
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons five spice powder
• a thumb of ginger, sliced
• 3 spring onions, halved

Scalding glaze

• 3 tablespoons maltose, or honey
• 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 300 ml boiling water

Method

1. Pull out any loose fat from inside the cavity. Rub the salt and five spice inside only, and put the ginger and spring onions in there.
2. Prick the skin all over the breast and thighs with a skewer, angling it so you go through the skin and fat but not into the meat. Those holes are how the fat gets out.
3. Dissolve the maltose and vinegar in the boiling water and ladle it over the duck several times until the skin tightens visibly.
4. Sit it on a rack and leave it uncovered in the fridge for 24 HOURS. Longer than the chicken needs, because there is more fat under a duck's skin and more water to drive off.
5. Heat the oven to 160C. Roast the duck breast-up on a rack over a deep tray for 1 hour 45 minutes. LOW AND LONG: the fat has to render out before the skin can crisp, and a hot oven browns the skin while the fat is still there, which gives you a dark duck sitting in grease.
6. Pour the fat out of the tray twice during that time and keep it; it is worth more than most things in the kitchen.
7. Turn the oven to 220C for a final 15 minutes to blister the skin, watching it closely.
8. Rest 15 minutes, then carve the breast and chop the legs.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes