SmartShopIt Blog

For the first Thanksgiving in more years then I can remember, I did not have to prepare a turkey. It’s usually one of my favorite meals to cook but I also know how much work it is. Shopping for all the ingredients, then brining and roasting the turkey, to prepping the myriad of side dishes. It’s all consuming but very much worth it as I watch my family and guests enjoy every savory bite.

This year, as my wife’s cousin-in-law shared her story of preparing a 30 pound turkey for 25 family members, I cringed as she recanted how she discovered the 25 pound turkey she originally purchased had gone bad. Luckily, (and a testament to getting to know your meat purveyor) her butcher of many years exchanged the bird for any one of her choice at no additional cost. Then she shared how the oven caught on fire at 5:30a in the morning due to too much butter in the basting liquid. I was able to add another quiet blessing to be thankful for having this year off of cooking duty.

But I did not get off scott-free. I did prepare a few meals in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. And in doing so, I used lessons learned in preparing fowl that can be made more quickly and easily then the tender turkey. We at SmartShopIt, encourage our members to find products that are on sale or in season and then build a meal upon that. I happened to be at our local Genaurdi’s (also known as Safeway or Vons in many other areas) and found that they had some 5 pound ducks on sale. Plus, as meat products are getting close to their sell-by date, this store marks them down an additional 30%-50%. A great deal if you are going to use the product soon. I found a great 5 pound duck for less than 10 bucks.

A lot of people are scared of roasting a duck but it’s actually quite easy if you just remember that at some point you must render the fat from the duck (same as if you are cooking a goose). Rendering is the process of removing a much of the fat from the bird during the cooking process. Some recipes will have you skip this step and just tell you to throw the duck in a pan and roast for a couple of hours. Beware of this as the duck’s fat can accumulate on the bottom of your roasting pan and you will end up with half your duck stewing in duck fat (we’re roasting here, not trying to make duck confit). Or if most of the fat is not released properly at some point, you end up with a very greasy finished product.

So the key to cooking great duck is proper rendering. If you’ve ever had Chinese roast duck (as in Peking Duck), you know they have perfected this process giving the final product a crispy and tasty skin that is out of this world. The Chinese chefs blow air into the duck, separating the skin from the fat. They then soak the duck and hang it to dry for a day. Next they apply a glaze to the duck and then roast it in a hanging oven for hours.

While this process is too involved for most of us, there are several rendering techniques that work well and give a great finished product:

Low heat first – There are recipes that say to prick the skin and put the duck in at a low temperature (300 – 325 degrees) and after the fat is rendered out raise the heat to finish (425-500 degrees). This works fine, just make sure to put the duck on a rack so the drippings can fall to the bottom of the pan. It is also recommended when using this method to periodically remove the pan and drain the fat. Otherwise the fat could start smoking and even potentially catch fire, especially when you raise the heat.

High heat first - There are also recipes that say to begin at the higher heat, then remove the duck and then prick the skin to drain the fat. Then lower the heat and finish the roasting process. This method imparts a little more flavor as the duck actually bastes in its own fat for the initial cooking period. The down-side is that it can be a bit of a tricky and messy process to drain the fat from a hot duck. Plus I don’t think as much of the fat gets removed.

Duck Stock Method – This technique calls for simmering the pricked duck in stock for 45 minutes. A bonus is that this can be done ahead of time. Then when you are ready to eat, just put it in a 500 degree oven for 30 minutes to give you that great crispy skin. I found that this method works great in that it imparts flavor and gives you an easy and clean way to render the fat from the duck. With other methods, the fat can burn on the bottom of the pan. (Rendered duck fat is great for cooking other items. Not the most healthy (saturated fat) but hey, it’s Thanksgiving!) It’s also especially useful if you want a quick cook time when it comes to finishing the meal. The final benefit is that you have a great duck stock to use for other purposes.

To prick the duck skin, use a fork and insert it into the skin at an angle so you don’t puncture the meat. Do this in several places, paying close attention to those areas that hold a lot of fat. I also trim the fat from around the neck cavity and tail section. Put these pieces in the stock pot if you want to keep the rendered duck fat.

Some friends had brought over some great cranberry wine and jellied cranberry is very inexpensive this time of year, so I made a cranberry glaze by reducing the wine, duck stock, a little honey and then adding and melting in some jellied cranberry. Brush this on the duck before the final roasting and again right after it comes out to rest.

I accompanied it with rice pilaf made from the duck stock and some glazed carrots. It made for a no fuss, quick, inexpensive and impressive dinner the night before thanksgiving.

Price Guide – Duck Grade A Frozen

Smart Buy – Less than $2.20 per pound

Average Price – $2.50 per pound to $2.85 per pound

High Price – Greater than $3.00 per pound

(I will post the recipes in the recipe section.)

Filed under: Meat