Wood Roasted Whole Sonoma Duck Food

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.

WHOLE DUCK WITH GREEN PEPPERCORN GLAZE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 500˚ and arrange the oven rack in the center. Remove the innards of the duck and reserve them for another use or discard. Remove any loose pockets of fat surrounding the cavity. Season the inside of the duck with salt.
• In a pot large enough to hold the duck, combine 6 cups water, 3/4 cup of the soy sauce and 1/3 cup of honey. Bring the mixture to a simmer over low heat. Add in the brine from the green peppercorns, lower the heat and submerge the duck, breast-side down, in the pot. Let it simmer 30 seconds, basting the top with the liquid. Remove the duck and arrange it, breast-side down, in a roasting pan fitted with a rack that elevates it off the bottom of the pan. The rack will allow hot air to circulate around the duck as it cooks. Tie the legs together with kitchen twine.
• Put the roasting pan in the oven and turn the temperature down to 400˚. Cook for 30 to 35 minutes, until the duck is well browned. Remove the pan from the oven, then flip the duck. Using a turkey baster, remove the excess fat from the bottom of the roasting pan and transfer it to a heatproof liquid measuring cup.
• Return the duck to the oven and cook for another 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the size of your duck, or until well browned all over.
• When the duck is almost done, in a medium pot, combine the vinegar with the remaining 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup honey, the Marsala and the green peppercorns. Bring the ingredients to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat and simmer gently, allowing the glaze to reduce to a thin syrup and the flavors to blend, 10 to 15 minutes.
• Remove the duck from the oven and baste it with the drippings in the bottom of the pan. The duck should register about 150˚ when an instant-read thermometer is inserted into the thigh meat. Transfer the duck to a platter and pour half of the glaze over the breast and thigh meat. Reserve the remaining glaze for plating. Allow the bird to rest for about 15 minutes. Carve the duck and arrange on a serving platter. Season the flesh with salt, if desired, and top with the remaining glaze. Reserve any fat that accumulated at the bottom of the pan and use for the onions.