Lorna Laspias Roast Wild Duck Recipes

ROAST WILD DUCK

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450°F or higher. I often cook ducks at 500°F, and small ducks are best cooked at these high temperatures. (You can get away with 425°F if that's as high as your oven will go.) Let the oven preheat a good 20 to 30 minutes. Let the ducks rest at room temperature while the oven heats up.
• If the duck is reasonably fat, use a needle to pierce the skin where there is a lot of fat under it: The front of the breast, between the breast and legs, at the flanks, and all over the back of the bird. Be careful not to pierce the meat of the breast. Rub lemon over the bird and dust it with a good salt. Stuff the spent lemon or orange wedge inside the duck.
• Place a few celery stalks onto an oven-proof pan (I use a cast-iron frying pan), arranging them so you can rest the ducks on top. This prevents the ducks from sitting in their own juices. Roast in the oven as follows: About 10 to 15 minutes for teal or other small ducks, 13 to 20 minutes for anything up to the size of a gadwall, 18 to 25 minutes for a mallard or canvasback. The key here is an internal temperature of about 140 to 145°F at the deepest part of the breast meat, which is in the front third of the breast. Don't have an instant read thermometer? Get one. Ducks need to be cooked medium-rare to medium. An overcooked duck is a sad thing.
• Take the duck out, move it to a cutting board and rest it. Let small ducks rest about 5 minutes. Large ducks need to rest closer to 10 minutes, and geese up to 15 minutes.
• If you want a simple pan sauce, remove the celery and stir a tablespoon or two of flour into the drippings. Let this cook on the stove (you might be able to do this solely with the residual heat in the hot pan until this roux is the color of coffee-with-cream. Add a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, some wine or brandy and the juice of a lemon. If the sauce is too thick, add a little water or stock. Whisk everything to combine and add salt to taste. Turn off the heat, add a tablespoon of minced parsley and a knob of butter. Swirl to combine and serve.

ROASTED WILD GOOSE OR DUCK

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
• Rinse and pat goose dry. Place cold butter in a large bowl and add cranberries, raisins, orange, onion, apple, sage, tarragon, basil, garlic, bay leaf, salt, and pepper. Mix well using your hands until you have a large ball of butter and fruit.
• Stuff the ball of butter into the body cavity of the goose. Close cavity and tie drumsticks together with kitchen twine. Sew cavity shut to protect flavor and moisture, if desired.
• Place 2 large layers of foil on a work surface. Make a bed of bacon slices in the center of the foil by placing 4 or 5 slices side by side. Lay goose on top, breast-side up. Cover breast and legs with remaining bacon. Bring foil up and fold, sealing in the bird, leaving small space around the bird for air circulation. Place foil-covered bird into a roasting pan.
• Roast in the preheated oven until no longer pink in the center, 3 to 4 hours. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the largest part of the thigh should read 180 degrees F (82 degrees C).
• Remove from the oven, leave the bird breast-side down, and let rest for 15 minutes. Turn the bird breast-side up and let rest for 10 minutes. Open foil pouch very carefully, as there will be a lot of steam. Remove and discard all stuffing and transfer bird to a serving platter. Slice, carve, and serve, or serve whole and carve at the table.

ROAST WILD DUCK WITH CRANBERRY SAUCE

Steps:

• Rinse duck under cold water and pat dry. Remove any large lumps of fat from skin. Rub inside cavity and skin of duck with lemon. Season cavity and skin with salt and pepper. Truss bird, place on rack and set in shallow roasting pan. Roast at 350°F for 30 minutes.
• Pierce skin all over with fork to release fat. Continue roasting until duck is completely cooked, around 1-1/2 to 2 hours.
• Once every hour, remove all but 1 cup of fat from pan (some remaining fat will keep pan from scorching). Increase oven temperature to 500°F for the last 15 minutes of roasting to crisp skin. Remove duck from oven and set on warm plate. Pour off and discard fat.
• Place roasting pan on top of stove. Add port and heat over low heat, scrapping up any browned bits. Add butter and heat until melted. Add flour, stirring until smooth. Add chicken broth and whisk constantly until smooth and thickened, around 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in orange juice and 2 tablespoons brown sugar and mix well. Add cranberries and cook over high heat until cranberries pop, around 2 to 3 minutes. Add cayenne and more salt and pepper to taste. If mixture is too tart, add more brown sugar.
• To serve, using poultry shears cut duck in half lengthwise. Place on two serving dishes. Pour half of sauce over each serving. Serve immediately.

GRANDMA'S ROASTED DUCK

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325°. Pierce duck skin all over with a fork. Mix remaining ingredients; rub over outside of duck. Place duck on rack in a shallow roasting pan; add 1 inch of water., Roast duck, uncovered, until a thermometer inserted in thigh reads 180°, 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Remove from oven; let stand 15 minutes before carving. If desired, skim fat and thicken pan drippings for gravy. Serve with duck.

LORNA LASPIA'S ROAST WILD DUCK

Steps:

• Cut the ducks into serving pieces consisting of legs, thighs and breast quarters (all with bones in). Trim all fat and excess skin and discard along with backs, tails, nonmeaty necks and wings. Rub the serving pieces thoroughly with coarse salt. Rinse, pat dry and sprinkle with poultry seasoning and black pepper.
• Combine the marinade ingredients and marinate duck pieces for 24 hours (refrigerate), turning them at least 5 or 6 times.
• Heat the oven to 500 degrees. Remove the pieces from the marinade (making sure they are well coated), place them in a baking pan and roast them until they are nicely brown, about 30 minutes. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil, lower the heat to 325 degrees and bake for one hour, or until the pieces are fairly tender.
• To make the sauce, saute the onion and garlic in butter over low heat until the onion is transparent; add the rest of the sauce ingredients and mix thoroughly.
• Remove the foil from the pan, add the sauce to the duck pieces, turn them gently to coat them evenly and bake, uncovered, 15 to 20 minutes longer, or until slightly brown.