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What is the Best Sauce for Roast Duck?
Duck sauce. Who would have thought it? Sometimes the most obvious answer is the best answer for serious questions.
I have never liked Peking duck or crispy duck in Chinese restaurants, even when I visited China. I once had roast duck in the doctor’s lounge in a Florence, SC, hospital that was incredible. (In rural America, it is not unusual for the hospital to feed their doctors well to keep them happy.)
I could not decide what the meat was because it was so flavorful and moist. I asked the server what it was and was surprised to learn it was duck breast. I tried to recreate that a few times with less-than-stellar success. I think it is a hard dish to cook well and confidently.
Here is what I think solves some of the fatty texture issues of duck breast. Briefly deep fry the breasts in oil long enough for the skin to lightly brown. This can be done before company arrives. Drain, dry, and salt the breasts. Place them skin side up in a roasting pan and swab duck sauce over the skins. I check the internal temperature of the meat before I put it in the oven to gauge how long to cook it. A final temperature of 136 to 140 degrees after it sits is what I like. The final roasting in the oven is fairly quick, but when serving for company, the duck can rest a bit under tin foil while your wife organizes everything else.
It would be nice if everything in life came with a sauce that had directions embedded in its name.
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Interesting topic. I’ve had Peking duck in Peking, and it was so-so. The best duck I’ve ever had has been on an equatorial island, cooked at a cheap Chinese/ Japanese “fusion” restaurant. I don’t feel comfortable asking how it’s prepared or cooked because the staff is always so busy, and because they have such strong Chinese accents. But it’s roasted.. And I’m not sure the dark brown sauce is any kind of duck sauce; and though it’s delicious, it’s completely unnecessary.
I lost my gall bladder in that hospital – I was on a golf trip – lived on golf course hot dogs and beer for 3 days, and that was it for my gall bladder. Holy cats I was sick…
Cherry sauce is pretty good on duck – not particularly sweet and a little tangy.
Love well-prepared duck. Had excellent “crispy duck” with some kind of spicy sauce at a Thai restaurant in NW Pennsylvania.
Best duck I ever had was orange duck at a Vietnamese/French fusion restaurant in Georgetown. It was perfectly prepared and so delicious. Sadly, I think COVID did that restaurant in. We stopped by about a year ago for a reprise, and it was gone.
I’ve always preferred a lighter sauce with duck breast. A simple broth suits it. My favorite is (was?) done at Elizabeth on 37th in Savannah. When I had it there was no sauce. It was crusted with a mix of five spice, asiago, crushed Stone Wheat crackers, and crushed pecans among other things. The only better duck I’ve ever had is their confit, which is unfair to compare to a breast because confit duck legs and thighs are perfect.
I may have read your ultrasound. Who knows. Had you been feeling better you could have had a nice meal in the doctor’s lounge.
A light sour cherry sauce might be better but that is a lot more work than tearing open packets of duck sauce that you have left over from Chinese takeout.
Will try this out if I find duck anywhere here in the hinterlands. (Plenty of ducks out at the lake, but not sure if the grocery stores carry it.)
The greasiness of duck has always puzzled me, as so many people seem to praise the meat. But most of the time, I don’t like it.
Best duck I’ve ever had was in a spicy coconut sauce in a Thai restaurant in Cambridge, Mass., as a grad student. It was so hot but so delicious. I’ve been trying duck for 25 years but never found anything as good.
Here is the recipe my mother used for duck. It’s from Helen Corbitt’s Cookbook. She was for many years the Director of Food Services for Neiman-Marcus. In her introduction to the recipe, she shares that she got the recipe from A. L. Exline, a Dallas printer. The recipe is from 1957, so the directions are a little different than we are accustomed to. Here is the recipe, verbatim.
Black Bottom Duck (the name fascinated me)
3 wild or domestic ducks
4 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup melted butter
Clean, singe, and rub ducks inside and out with lemon juice. Roast at 425 degrees 10 minutes for each pound of duck. Baste with butter. Boned ducks are wonderful. When finished, baste with:
1 cup liquid from roast pan
1/2 teaspoon flour
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon wine vinegar
Juice of 1/2 orange
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
Tighten the liquid with the flour. Caramelize sugar over low flame, add vinegar, orange juice, and rind. Add to the thickened liquid and pour over the ducks. Decorate lavishly with watercress and brandied orange sections.
Sounds great.
“Tighten the liquid with the flour. Caramelize sugar over low flame, add vinegar, orange juice, and rind. Add to the thickened liquid and pour over the ducks. Decorate lavishly with watercress and brandied orange sections.”
That was written by a true chef. Be exuberant in your description, knowing that no one else will know how to make it taste as good as yours.
You could also pour duck sauce over it and then add watercress and brandied orange sections if you can find them.
Mom used to prick the skin all over with a fork and use a lot of lemon. The holes in the skin helped the fat to seep out, or so she said. It worked on goose, too.
Take one orange, slice or peel and section out the fruit from the membrane. Put in bowl. Pour brandy over. Let it sit until you need a smash. Use orange sections to garnish and brandy as a chef’s treat.
If you can find a copy of one of her cookbooks it makes great, politically incorrect reading. Lots of stuff about food that men love, written in a way that would not go over well with the foodie and pronoun crowd.
I love it. Pour brandy over it until you need a smash. Every recipe now has to be measured into directions and amounts that are not to be questioned.
I am not sure that the foodie and pronoun crowd are the same but they overlap in a major way on the Venn diagram.
Aldi often carries it if that is of any help.
When did you last go there? We went to Savannah on our honeymoon and had dinner one night at Elizabeth’s on 37th – partly because Elizabeth Terry had had a business in Atlanta (where I’m from) and partly because that’s my name.
It was wonderful and we made it a practice over the years that any time we went to Savannah we had dinner there. But we went there in 2018 and it was not a pleasant experience. The service was horrible and the food was only okay. What a disappointment.
It makes the rockin’ world go round.
This is a very enjoyable and illuminating post and thread.
Try orange sauce. It’s the classic sauce to serve with roasted duck.
I worked there as a waiter from 98 to 01 when we moved away. I’ve been back, but not since 2010 or so. I hate that you had a bad visit. I hope that was an anomaly. We were always nominated for Beard Awards – food and service – twenty plus years ago. I want that place to always be as good as I remember.
The key is to double cook the skin. Cook the duck, use a stuffing that tends to natural sweetness, then, take it out, turn on the broiler, douse the duck with a little water and cook it just short of burning.
This is why I don’t eat duck.
I tried that with my Thanksgiving turkey upon the recommendation of the lady in front of me inline at the grocery store. I couldn’t really taste the lemon but the meat was succulent and moist and the skin was crispy.
“[T]he duck can rest a bit under tin foil while your wife organizes everything else.”
So what is your recipe for obtaining an organizing wife?
I think it’s the acid in the lemon that does the trick. It has the same tenderizing effect as wine, for the same reason.
The duck you buy at the store didn’t live in a water treatment plant.
The Davos gang would approve
Sometimes you have to be willing to be the lonely fisherman.