meco water smoker, home grown cherry wood. in the boiler:boiled water, sparkling apple juice, thyme, cayenne, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. the duck was rubbed with pepper, salt, chili powder and paprika on top and underneath with curry powder.
smoked for 2 hours, the intention was to only add flavour to the meat not cook it.
into the oven at 450F to start, then dropped to 400F..... we were running out of time as it had to be coordinated with other foods, so had to cook it on high. the bird cavity was then stuffed with chopped ginger, garlic, thyme and halved mandarin oranges. sparkling apple juice was then added to the pan for moisture several times to stop stuff from burning in the pan.
note: the sparkling apple juice was purchased to give our kids the feeling that they were sharing in champagne over the holidays - which my wife and I had...... the kids hated the flavour of the sparkling apple juice and after i had a taste new it was only good for cooking. wife bought the monster pack at costco - looks like a lot of things are going to be cooked in sparking apple juice.
duck is a wonderful meat, very pleasant flavour(nothing like turkey(which i also love)) but unlike turkey that you can just walk away, you always have to pay attention when cooking because of the fat content in the skin. the meat is very lean but the skin is full of fat, just like goose. once cooking is finished carving is far more complicated that turkey. a couple slices with a good knife and you easily separate both turkey breasts, then legs then back. Not duck, the moment it starts to cool then outer fat starts to solidify and meat does not easily pull away from the bones, so you have to move fast and have a plan. the good news, you have soft hands for the evening.
this was served with white rice and spinach salad with balsamic vinegar, we knew the kids may not like the flavour as they never tried it before so my wife made an additional chicken roll wrapped in pastry.
clean up is a lot more difficult and soapy water has to be hot or the duck fat sticks to everything.
thanks for reading.
smoked for 2 hours, the intention was to only add flavour to the meat not cook it.
into the oven at 450F to start, then dropped to 400F..... we were running out of time as it had to be coordinated with other foods, so had to cook it on high. the bird cavity was then stuffed with chopped ginger, garlic, thyme and halved mandarin oranges. sparkling apple juice was then added to the pan for moisture several times to stop stuff from burning in the pan.
note: the sparkling apple juice was purchased to give our kids the feeling that they were sharing in champagne over the holidays - which my wife and I had...... the kids hated the flavour of the sparkling apple juice and after i had a taste new it was only good for cooking. wife bought the monster pack at costco - looks like a lot of things are going to be cooked in sparking apple juice.
duck is a wonderful meat, very pleasant flavour(nothing like turkey(which i also love)) but unlike turkey that you can just walk away, you always have to pay attention when cooking because of the fat content in the skin. the meat is very lean but the skin is full of fat, just like goose. once cooking is finished carving is far more complicated that turkey. a couple slices with a good knife and you easily separate both turkey breasts, then legs then back. Not duck, the moment it starts to cool then outer fat starts to solidify and meat does not easily pull away from the bones, so you have to move fast and have a plan. the good news, you have soft hands for the evening.
this was served with white rice and spinach salad with balsamic vinegar, we knew the kids may not like the flavour as they never tried it before so my wife made an additional chicken roll wrapped in pastry.
clean up is a lot more difficult and soapy water has to be hot or the duck fat sticks to everything.
thanks for reading.
