Duck???

[TrickyDick]

Hey,

Wanted to ask about any tips/suggestions for cooking duck...on a pellet grill/smoker.

I'm not a huge duck cooker, but I love ordering it when dining out. Unfortunately, I don't see it on enough menus except on vacations.
I can only get them locally in frozen form, and have a thawed duck ready to rock and roll for tomorrow.
Now I haven't prepped it other than thawing, and it says it comes with its own orange sauce packet.

I am thinking of giving it a good wash, then rub it with some good seasoning (but what? mind you i have quite an arsenal on hand). and stick in on the MAK to see what happens when duck meets grill.
The liver is all mine of course, and if its not included in the innards packet, I just might cry.

I don't really want to get too elegant here, and hopefully feed the family, since I suspect they could be reluctant to eat duck to being with ( I'm telling them its New York wild chicken!!). However if the quality is good, I may be buying more frozen duck in the future, I can imagine the possibilities : buffalo duck wings; scored and seared chicken breasts instead of boring chicken breasts. Duck legs and thighs rendered in their own fat (I think there is a name for this that is escaping me) with morsels eaten and also saved for later use in things like fancy salads, pizza toppings, etc.

In short, if I could eat the quack, I'd probably love that part too..

TD

 

[Saxguy]

Good duck is all about fat management. Here's a video I found - piercing the skin is important. I usually steam it over a pot for 20-30 minutes to start melting the fat. I assume they're boiling it for that reason. In addition to starting the fat rendering process, steaming allows the outermost layer of fat (now melting) to help crisp the skin while roasting. Flipping it to help drain the fat does work well.

In the video they take it to 175, I think 165 is s better temp but you can play around with it.

How to Roast a Whole Duck - Maple Leaf Farms

Also, figure out a way to collect and save the fat. I would say use a higher rack and put a pan underneath to collect it as it renders. I guess if your 4 star is really clean you could just take it from the grease tray at the end of the cook

 

[TentHunter]

Smoked duck is incredibly tasty! We do one just about every year for Christmas Dinner.

I like to spatchcock and score the skin. If smoking, do NOT steam or boil it first or you can close up the cell walls which can prevent it from absorbing smoke.

And, like Sax Guy said, definitely catch those drippings and fat. They are absolutely wonderful for roasting taters... and talk about heavenly tasting gravy!

Here's one we did: http://www.pelletsmoking.com/pelletsmoking-com-gallery-10/rest-christmas-dinner-3261/

 

[TrickyDick]

Thanks for the tips!
Since I'm going to be smoking it, I think I'll set a pan below to catch the fat drippings. The grease tray itself is pretty clean, but the other parts get nasty and pellet residue/ash mixes in with the grease tray (Its an AMAZING grease tray BTW!)

About how long should I expect it to take to cook if I spatchcock ?

Thanks!
TD

 

[Big Poppa]

ok duck is fun but grease management is essential...and the residual effect is great cooing fat...so on your four star you hant to cook it on one of the racks and have a hotel pan below to catch the clean drippings. the real key then is to make sure that you reneder the fat our without killing the meat so use a temp around 250....scor the sking...on seasonings make sure that whatever you use will be a flavor profile that you arent going to mind in your duck drippings...of my rubs I would go simple and use little louies with pepper...

once you have rendered that duck you can then reverse sear to tighted up the rendered skin....check the web but I cook my duck in teh 150s internal

 

[TrickyDick]

OK. Thanks for the tips.

I'll take some pics along the way.
In the meantime, FINALLY figured out how to listen to the HD 24/96 tracks on my Moving Pictures deluxe CD/DVD
TD

 

[TrickyDick]

View attachment 2382View attachment 2383

Here are a couple pics.

Since I don't have any hotel pans, I had to make due.

Some of the "scoring" was a little too deep. Got to blame the Apex Pro Sharpener for that one, plus inexperience in scoring.

Having a hard time getting the tube smoker to stay lit. Normally I blast it with my butane torch. It wouldnt do the trick. This time I got out the heavy artillery and gave it a few seconds of the MAPP torch. It can melt the steel so be careful...I filled it with orange pellets. I think that MAPP torch would do well for some cleaning and weed killing. Need to keep that in mind.
Rubbed the bird with some Lil Louie's w/Black pepper (Thanks for the suggestion Big Poppa). When I am ready to sear it, I'm thinking I might add some Simply Marvelous Pecan.

Of course the whole reason I bought the duck in the first place was for the foie gras... saving that all for myself.

TD

 

[Ozric]

OK. Thanks for the tips.

I'll take some pics along the way.
In the meantime, FINALLY figured out how to listen to the HD 24/96 tracks on my Moving Pictures deluxe CD/DVD
TD

Another RUSH fan! Hooray. I have only 2 copies of Moving Pictures, the gold Mobile Fidelity UltraDiskII and the remaster. I have not picked up the this latest version. Have the HD tracks be remastered for surround or are they still 2-channel? Thanks.

w.r.t. duck...

100% agree with fat management being the key. I came home one night (in college) to find some friends grilling some ducks they'd just "found" along the shore of Lake Mendota across the street from my apartment. The flames were shooting 10 ft in the air out of my Weber. The only thing that survived was the Weber. Oh, and my apartment.

 

[flypig]

I was watching the Time Machine 2011 DVD's this morning! Picked up the Strat and played along for a while. First song I ever learned was Memories off of 2112. Alex has been one of my guitar heros for decades.

 

[TrickyDick]

Well I'm almost to 150 IT. Still lots of fat. Flipped breast side down now to promote drainage and lowered to smoke setting.

The deluxe rush disc has two discs. One a remastered CD one a DVD with two layers: layer 1 DVD with several photos. Three videos. And both 5.1 and stereo tracks in standard DVD audio quality (better than cd). Layer two has both six and two channel versions in 24bit/96kHz. Cymbals really come alive. Hard to pick out details but slight advantage in SQ on the HD stuff.

TD

 

[NorCal Smoker]

I tried duck once, no bueno. I wish I had asked first like you did. BP's advice would have helped tremendously. I cooked much hotter and I got quite a bit of really good fat saved, but duck was indelible. You look like you are off to a great start!

Not sure if your tube smoker problem is lighting or placement, but if it is lighting, I have used the method that BP suggests for lighting your fire pot if your igniter is out. I use olive oil on a paper towel in the end of the tube, light it and wait till it lights the pellets. Then place in smoker. Just another option....

 

[TrickyDick]

Thanks for the help on the tube smoker!

Will def try that! MAPP will MELT the tube metal....

TD

 

[TrickyDick]

Thanks for the help on the tube smoker!

Will def try that! MAPP will MELT the tube metal....

TD

Well, the duck was tasty. My son really liked it so will be doing again.

I was not able to fully render the fat before the duck had reached IT of low 150s. I only collected about 2/3 cups total in the pan. After reaching that IT I pulled the duck and raised the temp to 425 for a sear on a cast iron grill grate. Did reasonably well. I am wondering if the next time I don't spatchcock the duck, that it'll take longer to cook and thus render out more fat. Possibly cooking even at 225 or even smoke (though I am not certain that the smoke will be hot enough to render fat. Well now its game on until I perfect the technique for rendering all the fat and getting delicious crispy skin.

Still tasted delicious by the way. I hit it with a little simply marvelous pecan before searing the skin.

TD View attachment 2394View attachment 2395

 

[Ozric]

That sure looks good, TD! I wouldn't worry too much about needing a few runs to dial in a duck cook. A chef I know down in the valley opened a new place about 6 years ago, a swore that he was going to serve rotisserie duck. He built this big 4 rack rotisserie near the entrance to the kitchen. He was serious. About TRYING to make it work. NEVER did. No matter what he did, they always burst into flames on the rotisserie. All he ever had on there after opening was pooters. Phooey.

And thanks for the info on the remastered audio on the MP DVD.

 

[TentHunter]

Well, Dick it looks like it turned out good. It's hard to beat smoked duck, especially if you prefer dark meat. Leftover cold smoked duck is excellent the next day, on a salad.

I was not able to fully render the fat before the duck had reached IT of low 150s.

That's why I switched to using a cross hatch pattern for scoring the skin of duck. The more fat you can expose, the more fat will render while cooking.

 

[NorCal Smoker]

Wow TD! That duck looks real good! I will have some of that.

 

[SmokinSaluki]

Another RUSH fan here. Just saw the last show of the tour in KC!
Skip the frozen store bought duck and go out and shoot the real thing. Virtually no fat!

 

[Ozric]

Another RUSH fan here. Just saw the last show of the tour in KC!
Skip the frozen store bought duck and go out and shoot the real thing. Virtually no fat!

I haven't been to a live show since the 30th Anniversary Tour (sat right in front of Geddy in the 3rd row; couldn't hear crap for two days after ), so I envy you that. But I'm going to guess that I saw them live before you did. The details (the specific date) are a bit fuzzy, but it was either December 1974 or January 1975. The place? B'ginnings in Scumburg (well, Schaumburg (I'm assuming you went to SIU, so I'm assuming that I don't need to name the state )) on Golf Rd. Neil Peart had just joined and they were touring Fly By Night. I also got to see the "Down The Tubes" tour (Caress of Steel). Anyway...

Depends on what kind of duck you shoot. Got me some blue bills once. They were LOUSY eatin'. And "in the wild" or "real thing" is just that. You find a duck in the park by your apartment? That duck's been eating nothing but people food. LOTS of fat on those bad boys. [See my post above on the flaming duck. Not something you want to come home to.]

 

[TrickyDick]

I had fantasies of going duck hunting when we got our new pup this January. Its hopeless though, as she is afraid of the water! Any duck I eat is either from the grocery store or a restaurant unfortunately.

I botched the liver by the way. It wasn't fatty enough and over cooked in the pan. My 8 year old son tried (bravely) and disliked, as did I. Well, next time I can try again. I really enjoy the flavor and texture of the duck meat for sure. the liver if you can get it right is a big plus as well.

Thanks for the help!

TD

 

[dnew]

It looks to me that you did a fine job on smoking the duck. It has been some time since I did a duck and it looked no where as appealing to the eye as yours. Good job, got me thinking duck once again and it will come from a commercial entity. Thanks for sharing.