5 lb frozen duck - now what?

[War Eagle]

A little help, please. We are at home, not camping, and we find ourselves with a 5 lb frozen duck to cook for New Year's dinner. So, what's the best way to cook a duck in 12 hours or less without setting off every smoke alarm in the house?

[rbryan]

If the dinner is on New Years, you have plenty of time to thaw it. If so, just thaw the duck and roast it. I've always brined my poultry overnight, rubbed it with Canola oil (or any other oil that won't burn at higher temperatures), roasted it hot for 20 minutes (around 425) then lowered to 350 the rest of the way. A 5 lb duck won't take long, maybe an hour and a half max. Use a meat thermometer in the deepest part of the thigh not touching any bone, and pull it out when the temp reaches 160F. Rest it for 20-30 mins before carving. This method of "brine-sear-roast" will make any poultry palatable and juicy - even duck, which isn't my favorite.

Can't promise however that you won't set off a smoke detector. [emoji23]

[k corbin]

Originally Posted by War Eagle

A little help, please. We are at home, not camping, and we find ourselves with a 5 lb frozen duck to cook for New Year's dinner. So, what's the best way to cook a duck in 12 hours or less without setting off every smoke alarm in the house?

First of all is the thawing process.
How To Thaw a Frozen Turkey | Butterball®
Follow these instructions from Butterball Turkey for food safe thawing. These instructions will do just fine for a duck or even a chicken. They are stated as time required for thawing in the number of hours needed to thaw one pound. So all you have to do is multiply by the weight of the duck.

As to the actual roasting of the duck. Fortunately there are quite a lot of well known cooking shows and chefs who have created videos teaching exactly how to do this step by step. Youtube had dozens of those very good videos posted. So that way you can have your very own chef teaching you how to do it perfectly. If you don't like the way one of them sounds as a teacher just click on another selection and find a different teacher.

I hope you have a wonderful dinner and a happy New Year.

[Raz]

Originally Posted by War Eagle

A little help, please. We are at home, not camping, and we find ourselves with a 5 lb frozen duck to cook for New Year's dinner. So, what's the best way to cook a duck in 12 hours or less without setting off every smoke alarm in the house?

If that's the only criteria, boil it. . Sorry, I couldn't resist.

My first thought is to head for the grocery store for a Perdue Oven Stuffer and keep the duck for later. But if it has to be duck here's what I would do. To thaw put it in a pot with hot tap water. Replace the water as needed. Pat dry. As Robert suggests, brining will add moisture but it takes time. I stopped brining for health reasons. I cook poultry at 325°. Putting it low in the oven and removing the fat from the pan will keep the smoke down. Start checking with you're thermometer after an hour. Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

[Jon in AZ]

Originally Posted by War Eagle

...without setting off every smoke alarm in the house?

Electric roasting pan on the porch? We have both small and large electric roasters and consider them among the handiest small appliances we own. Lets you cook the meat separately, leaving the main oven free for rolls, desserts, etc., and keeps grease and odors outside when the contents warrant and the weather cooperates. A little water in the bottom under the rack helps keep the meat moist and reduces smoking from grease drips.

I've never done a duck in one- don't care for them myself- but plenty of chickens and turkeys. Duck has a pretty strong flavor- I'd probably search online to find a nice glaze or chutney to accompany it.

Sounds fun. Let us know how the experiment works!

[Kenton]

I've smoked duck before in our Orion and noticed they really produce a lot of oil.
It overflowed the pan when we did a 6 pound one so I keep a bowl in there now to catch drippings.

We did a turducken for Christmas for those of you not sure what a Turducken is, its deboned Turkey, Duck and Chicken wrapped together around sausage stuffing.

It weighed 17 1/7 pounds and took 2 1/2 hours to make in the orion.
I used fresh citrus wood to smoke it and it came out nice.
It really produced drippings. It almost overflowed a large bowl.
I've never tried one of these or a duck in an oven and suspect you would need to monitor the pan to keep it from spilling over.

[Iowa Dave]

My vote would also be for an electric roaster on the porch or in the garage out of the wind. I’d use a lifting rack and start with some water in the bottom of the pan to keep things moist and to keep from burning the fat exuded by the duck meat as it cooks. Also the rack keeps the cooking bird from soaking in its own fat. A five pound duck isn’t much different than a five pound roasting chicken in the time it will take to cook but they are more oily. Just my $.02
Iowa Dave

[Iowa Dave]

Sorry I did not read Jon’s entire post and did not mean to parrot his very good answer. I’m not nuts about roast goose either but always enjoyed a big Muskovy baked in a commercial oven wrapped in a moist bread dough. Sykora bakery in Cedar Rapids used to do turkeys, geese, Muskovy duck and Hams at the holidays for regular customers. You’d bring in your poultry or ham the day before and they would bake them early in the day of the Holiday. The cost for this was $1.25 plus a sincere thank you to Lumir Sykora and his crew.
Iowa “1/2 Czech” Dave

[Kenton]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

Sorry I did not read Jon’s entire post and did not mean to parrot his very good answer. I’m not nuts about roast goose either but always enjoyed a big Muskovy baked in a commercial oven wrapped in a moist bread dough. Sykora bakery in Cedar Rapids used to do turkeys, geese, Muskovy duck and Hams at the holidays for regular customers. You’d bring in your poultry or ham the day before and they would bake them early in the day of the Holiday. The cost for this was $1.25 plus a sincere thank you to Lumir Sykora and his crew.
Iowa “1/2 Czech” Dave

So Muscovy ducks actually have a use. I thought the only thing they were good for is crapping on sidewalks in retiree trailerparks.

If you cooked one in an oven you would need some way to keep the meat out of the liquid in the pan. I do know duck can put out the coals in a weber grill. We ended up finishing one on propane at the neighbors.

wetzk "100% mutt"

[Tom 72]

I recently became aware of Instant Pots. They are multi function pressure cookers that people rave about for cooking frozen roasts in a short time. They also replace slow cookers, rice cookers and perform a handful of tasks well. Look into them.

[War Eagle]

Thanks, everyone for your insight and suggestions (and humor). We have an Instant Pot (and love it!) and a rotisserie oven that we can set outside, so we have options. I tend to like the idea of having someone else custom cook it for us! But after an hour or two on the internet, my wife says she's got this. My job is to stand by with a phalanx of exhaust fans and a cadre of fire extinguishers, and I've got that covered. So I think we're good to go, but please keep us in your thoughts as we venture forth - us and our 5 lb now half-thawed duck....

[Alf S.]

Originally Posted by War Eagle

A little help, please. We are at home, not camping, and we find ourselves with a 5 lb frozen duck to cook for New Year's dinner. So, what's the best way to cook a duck in 12 hours or less without setting off every smoke alarm in the house?

Hi: War Eagle... Sorry your duck froze. First thing to do is thaw the pond!!!
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

[k corbin]

If you think you are accumulating too much fat in the bottom of the roasting pan just use a turkey baster to suck up the fat. Then dispense that fat into a metal pan or pyrex glass container to cool down. The fat from the duck is considered to be a great delicacy and the French cooks would never throw it out.

Give this link to your wife to learn how to render and store it for later use.
Rendering Duck Fat at Home | D'Artagnan

Of course instead of cooking with the duck fat you can also use it for lighting as in "tallow" candles. That way the smell of the cooking duck can linger around even longer In the old days animal fats would never go into the garbage pit, it was very valuable stuff that was used for cooking, food preserving, animal feed, lighting, food prep, leather making, water proofing, lubrication, axle grease for wagon wheels, medicinal purposes, cosmetic needs and soap making too. It was truly of one those waste not, want not by-products.

[rbryan]

Originally Posted by k corbin

The fat from the duck is considered to be a great delicacy and the French cooks would never throw it out.

Nor would I, if there's enough to use. If you've never had duck fat fries, you're missing out.

[Iowa Dave]

When my brother was a picky eater as a yute, mom would remind him that there were starving people in India who would be glad to have his food. He told her to call them up and tell them to come and get his plate. That’s when the dreaded white leather belt came out. I’d probably get the belt if I had any duck fat. Before you judge me, realize that I have pulled sheets of leaf lard from tens of thousands of hogs on the packinghouse kill floor and have great reverence for pie crust made with lard. Good stuff
Iowa Dave

[War Eagle]

Well... My wife cut the duck in half. One half is in a roasting pan in the oven at 400 degrees. Should be about half done by now. Not much fat rendered out yet. I was hoping for some of those duck fat fries Robert highly recommended, but we may not get there. The other half just finished its poultry pressure cooking cycle in our Instant Pot. It's currently cooling down and getting ready to release the pressure. It will go in the oven for browning/crisping as soon as the roasting half comes out. Also, several sundry duck pieces and parts (neck, giblets, etc.) went into a pot and are boiling on the cook top. So far, everything smells great! And we've yet to need exhaust fan or fire extinguisher. So all is well... So far....

[War Eagle]

Both ways of cooking the duck (oven roasting vs Instant Pot followed by oven browning) came out great! Moist, tender, flavorful, yummy! The Instant Pot method had a slight advantage in less overall cooking time and a big advantage in ease of clean-up. On the down side for the Instant Pot, a lot of the spices that started on the duck ended up in the bottom of the pot. So next time, we'll likely re-spice the duck before putting it in the oven for browning. We would do either way again, very yummy both ways!