Sunday Roast: Duck
For about 3-4 people
- 1 whole duck, 5 pounds, frozen, thawed
- some root-vegetables
- 10-12 medium-sized potatoes
- spices
Step 1.
a) Trim, clean and cut open the duck. Do not remove any of the fat. Rinse throroughly with cold water inside and outside, shake off the water into the sink. Put on a sheet-pan (optional: oiling it a little bit), season generously from inside and outside with salt, pepper, thyme. Preheat the oven to the highest possible setting.
b) Turning the trimmings into duck-soup is tricky, because boiled duck-meat has a weird aroma, but I have finally found the correct spices to make it work:
- duck-trimmings (surplus skin cut into very small pieces, neck-bones, wing-tips, heart, stomach, lung, liver, kidneys; discard the rest)
- some vegetables: carrot and parsely-root; no onion!!!
- pinch of salt, pinch of ground pepper, bay-leaf, 2-3 whole grains of allspice, 2 rehydrated dried shiitake-mushrooms (makes ALL the difference)
Boil.
c) Side-dish:
- Peel, wash, and cut in half the potatoes. Bring to a boil.
Step 2, start of cooking/roasting.
a) Roast the duck in the oven on the highest possible setting for 30 minutes. The purpose is to render out the duck-fat.
b) Soup still boiling. Remove the greyish scum on the surface of the broth.
c) Pre-boil the potatoes until done on the outside. They DO NOT NEED to be done all the way through. Drain thoroughly.
Step 3, 30 minutes later.
a) Remove the duck from the oven, add the drained, pre-boiled potatoes to the sheet-pan, back into the oven for another 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 120°C-150°C (250°F-300°F).
b) Soup still boiling.
Step 4, 30 minutes later.
a) Remove the duck from the oven, flip the potatoes, back into the oven for another 30 minutes at 120°C-150°C (250°F-300°F).
b) Soup still boiling.
Serving, 30 minutes later:
- You can serve the soup as first course as is, or you can strain the broth and cook soup-noodles into it.
- Duck-meat and crispy potatoes roasted in duck-fat.
You need to pre-boil the potatoes before frying them in the hot duck-fat. If you put them in raw, they will soak up the fat and become soggy instead of crispy.
Do not discard the leftover duck-fat in the sheet-pan. Wait until it's cooled down to luke-warm, then pour into a jar and preserve. It turns fried vegetables magical.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Haven't been able to find duck in Lexington, Ky. Hell, they don't even stock pork belly or decent beef.
Enjoy! 
