Yay, duck!
Thanks to everyone here who helped give me tips. I cooked a duck! I'm pretty excited. It turned out really yummy, even if it wasn't perfect. I have some improvements to make next time, but overall I'm very happy with my ducky.
I mashed together a couple of different recipes here. First, I started with Alton Brown's brine:
1/2 cup kosher salt
1 pint pineapple orange juice
15 whole black peppercorns
1 bunch fresh thyme
4 cloves garlic, smashed
I mixed all of this up, put Huey in a bag (after taking out the gizzards and stuff from the cavity), and poured the brine over it. I put it in the fridge for probably about 2 hours, then took it out and rinsed Huey clean.
I turned my oven on to 300 degrees, to go for the "low and slow" approach. I didn't have a rack to put on my baking sheet, so I improvised a bunch of wadded up foil in my baking dish. I set Huey up on the foil and scored the skin to let the fat render out, top and bottom. Then I used this roasting method as a guideline, and ended up doing this:
Roast for an hour breast-side up
Roast for an hour breast-side down
Roast for an hour breast-side up
Roast for an hour breast-side down
Roast for 30 minutes breast-side up
I didn't crank the heat at the end, because I was scared of setting off my super-sensitive smoke detector. True story: Once, I had my bedroom window open, and one of my neighbors on the other side of the apartment complex had their fireplace going, and the trace of smoke wafting through the window into my living room was enough to set it off... about an hour after I had fallen asleep. What a way to wake up! Also, it turns out I can't take the thing off the wall and hide it from potential smoke, because it's wired to the wall! Awesome. Brilliant design. Almost as genius as lining up 6 ancient AC units outside the bedroom windows of the building.
Anyways! I digress. I pulled Huey out of the oven, and he looked like this:
Not the most photogenic duck, but he was taaaaaasty.
Towards the end of the last hour of roasting, I started a_boleyn's Sour Cherry Gastrique:
1 cup sour cherries in light syrup, with liquid
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2-4 tbsp orange juice
In a small saucepan, bring all ingredients to a boil, then reduce to simmer and cook until only a few tbsp of liquid remain (45 min to 1 hr). By the time that the liquid is reduced the cherries have fallen apart.
It was finished at the same time as the duck, and mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm it was good. Thanks, a_boleyn!
I cheated a bit here and instead of making a rice side, I went for one of those "nuke it in the bag" rice things, because I kind of suck at cooking rice. I also sliced up some cherry tomatoes and put them on the plate. By then Huey was done resting, so I carved him up. I, uh, kind of stink at carving, it turns out. He wasn't very pretty by the time I was done. But that's okay, since I wasn't going for "pretty" as much as "tasty".
This adventure was a success! I think that was one of the best meals I've ever eaten. I will definitely be doing this again. I need practice anyways.
Things I would improve:
- Use a sharper knife to score the skin- I kind of botched it, so not as much fat rendered out, and the skin wasn't as crispy as it could have been.
- Try Alton's method of steaming out the fat, then roasting. I could probably get a lot more out of the duck that way. I didn't really get a whole lot.
- Get a rack thingy to set the duck on. I probably lost lots of good duck fat in the wadded-up foil
- Practice carving. Seriously. I mangled poor Huey.
Now I just need to find a place that regularly keeps duck in stock, so I can practice again. I think once I nail this, I'll have a great "dish to impress the socks off a visitor" meal.