In article ,
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Please, don't post anything involving duck.


Step 1, of course, is to procure yourself a duck.
The best duck will be a late season mallard. Pintails
and canvasbacks are also excellent, but they usually
migrate out too early in the season, at least where
I live. You should preferably shoot your mallard at
dawn on a cold November morning in a beautiful but
lonely place, with the first flakes of snow blowing
in the wind. You don't need to use a quality double
gun or have the duck retrieved by a well-trained
Labrador, but it certainly doesn't hurt.

Once the duck is in hand, you must prepare it properly.
If the duck is badly shot up, you have my permission
to do whatever you have to do to salvage the meat,
but if the duck is in decent condition, you must pluck
the bird. I know it's a pain, but if you skin it or
breast it out, you will be punished by having to eat
dry flavorless meat. Take the time, it will be worth
it. Pluck as much by hand as you can (OBROFF: you can
recover many useful feathers for flytying from a duck)
then singe off the remaining down with a blowtorch, and
pick out any pinfeathers with a pliers. Gut the bird,
pick out all of the shot you can find, as biting down
on no. 2 steel pellets will only enrich your dentist,
and put it into the fridge for a few days to age.

Cooking the duck is simplicity itself. Try to restrain
the impulse to tart it up with a lot of extra
ingredients. Preheat your oven to about 450F or so,
and pat the bird dry and put it into a deep roasting
pan. Pull the plug on the smoke detector, because a
late season mallard is going to be carrying a thick
layer of fat under the skin, which is going to splatter.
Pop the roasting pan into the oven, and leave it for
20 to not more than 30 minutes (small ducks like teal
might only take 15 minutes or so.) Your goal is to
get the skin golden brown and crispy, while the meat
inside is still nice and rare. When it has reached
this state, pull it from the oven, set the duck aside
to rest. Drain all the excess fat from the pan (and
keep it in a jar in the fridge -- rendered duck fat
is an excellent cooking fat ). Deglaze the pan with
a cup of inexpensive but decent port and a cup of
stock made from the bones of the last duck you cooked.
Simmer until the volume is reduced by half, and then
thicken with a few pats of cold butter (screw the
cholesterol, you can diet tomorrow!) If you don't
have any stock, you can skip the sauce and serve
the duck with sour cherry or red currant preserves.
Filet the breasts off the duck and cut into slices
across the grain of the meat, making sure each slice
has a piece of the crispy skin, which of course is
the best part.

You don't need elaborate side dishes. Perhaps a
loaf of crusty french bread and a crisp green salad,
but you will definitely want to bring out your best
bottle of red wine. OK, you will want 2 or maybe
3 bottles of wine. Also have plenty of napkins,
because the grease will be all over your fingers and
dripping down your chin. Eat it with someone who
will appreciate it.

Kevin

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kevin dot vang at minotstatu dot edu