Crisp Roast Duck

Award-winning cookbook author Rose Levy Beranbaum shares her duck recipe, with rich moist flesh and flavorful crispy skin.

Serves 3 to 4

Duck, with its rich moist flesh and flavorful crispy skin, can be the most delicious of all poultry. However, when not cooked properly it is greasy with fat, the flesh over-cooked and dry and the skin soft and uninteresting. Because I love duck so much and even in restaurants have more often than not been disappointed, I set out years ago to find a way to roast duck which would eliminate the maximum amount of fat while maintaining the juiciness. 

The solution turned out to be extraordinarily simple: boiling water is poured over the skin to tighten it, then the duck is air dried (which can be accomplished overnight in the refrigerator). The most important part is that during roasting, the skin of the duck is pricked, the oven temperature is very high to release the fat and boiling water is poured directly on the duck to keep it moist and to prevent the fat from splattering. The resulting duck is virtually fat-free, moist with crisp skin and, as an added benefit, it cooks in under an hour.

Ingredients:

1 Long Island duckling 4-1/2 to 5 lbs

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground

1 large clove of garlic, cut in half

1 large apple, quartered

Directions:

Day ahead: Remove all loose fat from the duck and pour boiling water over the skin. Sprinkle it lightly inside and out with salt and pepper. Place the duck on a rack (preferably a V shaped rack) in a pan to catch any juices and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Remove the duck from the refrigerator 1 hour before roasting.

Preheat oven to 450°F.  Fold the wing tips back under the back and wrap foil around the wings to protect them from burning. Place the garlic and apple in the duck's cavity and prick the duck all over, being careful not to go deeper than the fat layer. Pour 1/4 cup boiling water on top of the duck and roast for 15 minutes.  Remove it from oven, prick and add water again, and return it to the oven. Repeat every 15 minutes until the duck has roasted for at least 45 minutes (not including time out of the oven).[1] Test for doneness by tipping the duck tailward. The juices should run almost clear with barely a tinge of pink. An instant read thermometer inserted in the thigh, not touching the bone, should read 180°F. Leave the duck on the rack for 15 minutes before carving so that it can re absorb its juices can re absorb and the skin remain crisp.

[1] If the broiler pan is shallow, it may be necessary to drain accumulated fat half way through the cooking.

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