Whole duck

[Hetyanni]

I have a whole duck to cook at the weekend, how would you cook it? What would you serve it with?
Thanks!

I’d have it as part of a roast dinner and have morello cherry sauce with it, or possibly damson. You boil not quite equal quantities of jam and red wine together. Delia has a recipe for it. I expect it is on line.
Peas are traditional with duck as well so that’s nice and easy.

Hoping is isn't from Aldi.

Duck à l'orange. Orange juice and Cointreau mixed with orange marmalade, use for glazing and basting. The most traditional side dish would be red cabbage, best with caramelized apples added in.

To add - orange slices for stuffing.

With plums and star anise, green beans tossed in sesame oil or sesame seeds and roast potatoes.

How many are you serving? I find duck quite rich and strong and a little goes a long way, especially if it's padded out with pork or sausages. So what I tend to do is roast the duck first, on a rack, and keep the fat to use for roast potatoes etc in future. From a typical supermarket duck I can get two decent sized pots of fat which would have cost as much as the duck itself if I'd bought it in jars. It will keep in the fridge for months - I'm still using some which dates back to Easter.

With the 'free' duck I cut off the legs, and strip the rest of the meat from the carcass. The legs and a few other pieces get saved for making cassoulet. The rest goes into a Portuguese dish called arroz de pato - "duck rice."

There are plenty of recipes on the internet for arroz de pato but they traditionally call for the duck to be boiled in red wine. I just make a stock with the carcass in advance, and add wine while cooking the dish. Basmati rice works fine if you cannot get hold of carolino rice.

Wild duck is incredibly lean and completely different to cook than farmed duck which is much fattier.

We get a fair bit of wild duck and tend to sear the breasts before roasting in a pot with red wine, marmalade, various herbs, onion, but it needs to be kept very moist. Virtually no fat comes out.

@Pumpkinsonparade

Hoping is isn't from Aldi.

Why? A recall? A scandal? Do tell!

We got one last week. Looked amazing.. Underneath it was like grey slurry. Inedible tbh. Waste of a tenner..
Smelled awful too.

How grim! Hope OP doesn't get one like that and hope you complained.

I am a big fan of this company
www.luvaduck.com.au/

Obviously you can't get their ducks here- but their recipes are great!

Gorgeous sounding recipes, thanks so much everyone!

Not from Aldi, no.

It is for 2 of us.

Phew!! I know how disappointed I was!!

LIdl are selling fresh 2kg ducks from tomorrow for £6.99. I've never had a problem with them in the past. They also sell frozen ones this time of year - again never a problem.

@Pumpkinsonparade

Phew!! I know how disappointed I was!!

I can imagine!

@Otherpeoplesteens

LIdl are selling fresh 2kg ducks from tomorrow for £6.99. I've never had a problem with them in the past. They also sell frozen ones this time of year - again never a problem.

Good idea for Christmas