What do I do with a frozen whole duck?

[tsipple]

I'm occasionally a sucker for sales. I found a whole duck for a mere 89 cents a pound in the grocery store today and, after several minutes of consideration, I decided to bring the dead duck home. It's in my freezer now.

This decision was almost as difficult as the time I found 9 cent cans of pumpkin after the holidays a couple years ago. I think those sat in my cabinets for a year or two as I made plenty of pumpkin pie.

So what to do with a duck? Any ideas?

[Maddy McCall]

1. Assault with a deadly weapon?

Use it on any burglar. Take it out of the freezer at night and place it beside your bed, and then in the morning place it back in the freezer.

Frozen ducks are much more effective at deterring agressive assailants than are baseball bats or fire pokers. Nothing terrifies the would be assailant like a woman swinging a dead duck!

[ET Awful]

8. First you'll need some Duck Tape :) :) :)

[HereSince1628]

2. Thaw it and cook it?

:shrug:

[tsipple]

5. Well, Yeah...

...But how and how? I've never cooked a duck before. Or very many whole chickens or turkeys, even.

[displacedtexan]

3. www.epicurious.com

yum!

[Demobrat]

4. Thaw it out

and roast it like a chicken.

[supernova]

6. Roast Duck recipes at Food Network

I especially like:

- Roast Duck w/ Apples and Prunes (I'd sub apricots) by Tyler Florence

- Apricot Szechuan Roast Duck by Sara Moulton


There's 3 pages of "roast duck" recipes here. Probably more if you do a more geneirc "duck" search.

http://web.foodnetwork.com/food/web/searchResults?searchString=roast+duck&site=FOOD&searchType=Recipe&GoSearch.x=17&GoSearch.y=16

[BigDaddyLove]

7. Donate it to a local food bank..................

it being the Holiday Season and all.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

9. actually the best way to roast a duck is as follows

First you obviously want to thaw it in the refrigerator. You can brine it for while with lemon juice, salt and water (about an hour)

Then place the duck on the rack in the oven and place a dripping pan below the duck to catch the fat. since duck is one of the fattier birds, this is recommended.

Cook it for about an hour at 350.

Then remove from the oven, place in a pan, season with salt and pepper...for a sauce combine a bit of orange juice, garlic powder, orange marmalade and heat this in the microwave or a sauce pan in order to get everything to combine...then pour over the duck and continue cooking in a pan in the oven at 400 for another 20 to 30 minutes or until a clooking thermometer registers at 170 degrees.

[Padraig18]

10. Use it as a bludgeon on the next ditto head you encounter...

... would be my suggestion. :evilgrin:

[Larry Gude]

11. You could maybe...

...use it to start an earthquake. In Iran.

Sorry. I have to vent about another thread.

Humor is my only solace.

[Capn Sunshine]

12. Debone it and stuff it with a deboned chicken;then stuff it in a turkey

aka Turducken.

http://casa.colorado.edu/~kachun/tdc_recipe.shtml

[trof]

13. PEKING DUCK!

I guess it's Beijing Duck now?
http://chinesefood.about.com/library/weekly/aa033100a.htm

[TreasonousBastard]

14. Good price.

Shoulda got some more.

Just about all ducks are frozen now. There are no full-time inspectors at duck farms, so they slaughter and freeze them when the inspectors show up.

Anyway, thaw the duck like you would a turkey-- either leave it in the fridge for a day or two, or put it in a large bowl of water.

Lotsa recipes for duck around, and note that oranges and wild rice go particularly well with it.

Could just roast it pretty much like any other bird. No big deal to that, and roast duck is delicious.

If roasting, there is a trick I learned from a chef years ago-- prick the skin all over and roast at 500 degrees for about half an hour. (This drains the excess grease from the duck.) Then continue cooking at about 300-325 until it's done. Don't know the times offhand, but there should be a cooking guide sonmwhere on the package. Ducks don't have the huge meaty breasts chickens and turkeys have, so they take a little less time per pound.

Make sure the duck is on a rack over the pan because of all that dripping grease. The fat left under the skin, btw, is nothing like other fats. Unlike chicken fat, it's supposed to be there and is insulation for the duck while swimming in cold water. Chemically, it's more akin to olive oil, and is alleged to be quite healthy.

Yummmm...

I'm gonna see if duck's on sale around here somewhere.

[supernova]

17. Really?

The fat left under the skin, btw, is nothing like other fats.... Chemically, it's more akin to olive oil, and is alleged to be quite healthy.

I hadn't known that. Note to self: eat more duck in 2004. :9

[trof]

15. Duck a L'Orange

http://www.pheast.com/recipes/new/duck_a_lorange.html

[flamingyouth]

16. My husband makes the best roast duck

But he's not home from work yet. PM me and I will get his recipe for you.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

18. Buy a Brinkman Smoker...

Smoke it slowly, over Oak or Apple wood. Eat. Watch eyes cross.

[tsipple]

19. Oh, That Sounds FANTASTIC

Wow. Never thought of that one.

[nostamj]

20. threaten to beat hussar's step-daughter

and boyfriend senseless with it...

to a 101 Strings score... ;-) (you'd have to have read the thread)

[slackmaster]

21. Fire it from an air cannon

But not at any moving vehicles or airplanes.

[jimbo fett]

22. As long as the duck consents... ANYTHING YOU WANT.

[Whitacre D_WI]

23. Duck Bowling.

Duh.

[KoKo]

24. Cook it in a DEEP pan, or you'll never get rid of the grease all over

your oven!