Does anyone here ever do "BBQ duck" low and slow, like a pork butt or a brisket? I suppose a higher heat at the end would be necessary to crisp the skin (maybe even throw it on the rotisserie to finish?), but otherwise, why not cook for hours at 225°F-ish?
The duck I've eaten has tended to be on the dry side, especially the breast meat, because people tend to cook it way too long. One recipe I looked at calls for baking duck at 350 F for a whopping 3 hours. Wowser.
Boiling (briefly, more blanching I suppose) is a step in a lot of Peking Duck recipes, sucks the grease out of the skin and lets the skin crisp up. I tried it with a goose once, and it actually worked pretty well. After dunking in the boiling water, you're supposed to let it sit for a while/or overnight.
I have to agree that most of the duck I've eaten has been overcooked. There's a restaurant near me that makes a duck breast appetizer--they cook it medium rare, and it's fantastic.
Here's a Raichlen recipe that smokes the duck at 250, then bumps up the temp to 350 and goes for a total of 3-4 hours. He says the Chinese prefer duck well done.
Duck is duck, so cook it like a chicken, hot & fast. The difference is, it will taste like a duck. The Chinese &/or Asian way is it will be cooked dead, a little different taste & texture. Whatever trips yer trigger. Just don’t be a wuss, cook it & eat it & say yum.
On Thanksgiving a buddy of mine cooked his turkey for several hours in his pellet cooker at 200 degrees. He sent me a couple of pics. The skin didn't pick up a lot of color but the breast meat was plenty juicy.
I have grilled, baked, and pan fried duck breast many times. Here is the thing with duck. The breasts want to be medium rare and the legs and thighs want to be around 180 degrees. So I separate the duck and render as much fat and skin from the carcass as I can. Duck fat is liquid gold. I cook the legs and thighs confit with some garlic at 250 for about 2 hours or so. Then grill on high heat to crisp up. For the breasts, crosshatch the fat cap in about 1/2" squares, grill medium to high heat skin side down. Cook fat through then flip until medium rare.....That's the Reader's Digest version.
I’ve cooked a fair amount of ducks and the method consistently produces a great bird. The recipe here uses a siracha honey glaze which is excellent. The method itself is the important part as you can use whatever glaze you like.
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Roasted Peking duck, with a rich mahogany color and perfectly crisped skin, is considered a national dish of China. This grill roasted Peking duck recipe contains the steps necessary to replicate this classic dish at home. The result is perfectly crisped skin and mouthwateringly juicy and flavorful meat.
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