Duck

I haven't cooked duck in a while. Entirely too long, in fact. As the holidays faded, the sales began, and our local grocery store cut the price on duck pretty sharply on Christmas Eve, so I picked one up and tossed it in the freezer. It was ridiculously cheap, really. 


My past efforts cooking duck have been mixed, and prior to this evening, I'd never had crispy-skin nirvana. I combed the internet, and found a few entries from other folks that suggested a nice low and slow start followed by a blast at the end (I'd done this before) with a generous scoring of the skin (also tried before). I was willing to sacrifice juicy meat for crispy skin this time around, but was pleasantly surprised to have reasonably moist meat with the crispy skin. But the real bonus was the glaze. I did an adaptation that ended up using honey, soy sauce, liquid smoke (yes, I'm a fanatical user of the stuff), hot sauce, and a hint of cinnamon and garlic salt. 


The duck cooked for about 4 hours, with frequent flipping to keep the fat draining. I have saved that fat, and am looking forward to making a special potato dish with it in the near future. Once it was nearly done, the final 15 minutes saw the heat upped (first to 425 to get a golden and crispy skin, and then a flash for about 5 minutes under the broiler with the reduced glaze generously applied). 


I served this with a wild/brown rice mix sauteed with garlic, olive oil, a hint of salt/pepper, and a fair helping of peas. I should note that I put in over 6 cloves of garlic, and I note this because a friend of mine noted on Facebook recently that she felt this was an excessive quantity of garlic. I did it to prove a point, I suppose, but mostly because the rice needed that much to taste good, plain and simple! 


My wife brought home a bottle of NoCo Pinot Noir (thanks to the folks at In Fine Spirits for the recommendation). Nice. Simple. Dinner.


The Verdict


My wife's quote was, I believe, "I have afterglow from this dinner." I agree. The wine was the perfect pairing. The rice was the right texture and great complement for the duck. And the duck - wow. I wish I had another on hand. There is enough around for dinner tomorrow, probably not as good, but who cares! In the dead of winter, a bit of a tad-gamier taste is just the thing to break up the monotony.