Dear Reader,

I find myself in Brisbane for personal business. I cooked a whole duck while here. I’ve never done a whole duck before—bits of a duck, yes; a whole one, no.

The duck had sat in a freezer for months. A home freezer means some temperature fluctuations, and being poultry, I’m thinking salmonellosis and campylobacteriosis.

To overcome this concern, I’m using a meat thermometer to ensure I reach an internal temperature of 76 °C in the thigh.

The duck took two days to defrost. After defrosting, I dried the skin with a paper towel. I then hung it by its neck over the kitchen sink for a while to get as much blood out as possible. Unfortunately, a new white shirt is now a wearing-at-home shirt.

Recipe

Equipment

Meat thermometer

Ingredients

Duck
Salt
Ginger marmalade
French onion soup mix (low sodium)
Cabbage
Broccoli

Instructions

Defrost the duck and make sure it’s properly defrosted. Cooking partly frozen poultry is a point of failure regarding the risk of food-borne infection.
Dry the skin and hang it to let the blood and juices drain away.
Salt the skin so you are dry brining the duck. Do this the night before you plan to cook it.
Refrigerate the uncovered duck.
Turn the oven on and set it to 190 °C (fan-forced).
Place the meat thermometer into the thigh and put the duck on the middle rack.
Cook the bird until the internal temperature has reached 76 °C.
Rest the bird for at least 20 minutes before carving it.
While the duck was in the oven, make the marmalade and French onion soup sauce.
Boil a litre of water in a saucepan and add the soup mix.
Add a couple of tablespoons of ginger marmalade to the soup and gently boil until it reduces and thickens to a loose syrup.
Cut the cabbage and broccoli into small pieces and parboil for a few minutes.
Sauté the cabbage and broccoli in a frying pan. Help the process with some wine and maybe a teaspoon of marmalade. Cook these vegetables to the desired firmness or tenderness. I like my cabbage and broccoli firm in my mouth, but others like them mushy. I was cooking for some people with poor dentition, so we went with a softer version.
Carve the duck with a sharp knife and plate up. Drizzle some of the sauce over the duck and the cabbage.
Give thanks to the Lord.
Eat with a knife and fork.

Thoughts on the meal

I like eating duck. I like the fatty, oily, and gamey tastes and feel in my mouth. I also like eating the odd bits. I enjoy the uropygium and pygostyle of poultry. The uropygium is the fleshy protuberance, visible at the posterior end. It looks swollen because it contains the uropygial gland that produces preen oil. I also like eating the neck and dissecting out the œsophagus and trachea. Because of the limitations of available tools and photographic equipment, I couldn’t undertake the dissection on my plate like I have done previously.

The skin was crisp, and the meat was succulent. The marmalade and French onion soup reduction sauce accompanied the duck well. My dinner compatriots were pleased and I received 👍👍