"It will be greasy." "Don't do it, it's greasy." "They are dirty and greasy, I would never eat one."
How much support can one girl handle? No one wanted to help me prepare my first duck. Yet even with the threat of grease lulling about over head, Sunday night I roasted one of my ducks.
I invited my brother and his fiancé out for this feast {S
he really likes my green beans}. I looked through recipe books and homesteading books and no one agreed on the best way to roast a duck. I stared at the naked carcass, wondering what to do. One decision was simple, alcohol is not sold on Sundays here, so the wine port recipe was out and I had to go with a orange juice glaze.
Sometimes I wish that I had gone to culinary school, that way I would know what some of these fancy cooking utensils are actually called. I do not have a
V-rack, but I did have an electric Dutch oven, with a rack. I placed
the duck, breast side up into the Dutch oven, poured water up to the bottom of the rack, set the dial to steam and decided I had to go into town. I left instructions with my husband to check on the duck once in awhile to make sure that the water didn't completely evaporate. I was to
stem the duck for 40 minutes, I figured it would take about 10 minutes for the steam to build up, I could be back just in time.
I went out to the car, with all of my children begging to come with. I got them all buckled in, and headed to town. I needed the ingredients for the glaze;
1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice ~2 tbs fresh lime juice~ 2 tbl honey {
which I already had at home}
I made it home 2 hours later. My husband did as I asked, and there was water and grease at the bottom of the Dutch oven. I turned it off and
removed the duck to allow it to cool. In the meantime I started
the glaze. I mix all the ingredients into a small cast iron skillet, and brought it to a boil, reduced the heat to medium and watched it painstakingly
reduce its liquid to 1/4 cup. The book says that this process takes 30 minutes, more like an hour.
While the glaze was reducing and thickening, I
cut the duck into 6 pieces. 2 legs, 2 wings and 2 breasts. I
placed them in a baking dish, and wondered about the skin. This recipe doesn’t say to remove the skin, yet all the homesteading books encourage you to do so. I took the duck pieces back out of the dish and removed the skin. {
Doesn't that sound easy} Ducks make their own super glue and allow it to cure between their skin and muscle. Sometimes it is not completely dry, and you must try to grip the gel like substance without slipping. It wasn't an easy task. Chicken skin is much simpler to remove.
With the skin removed and the glaze still thickening and reducing, and put the
duck pieces back into the dish and baked at 425f for 20 minutes. It was
starting to brown, so
pulled it out and poured the now
thickened and reduced glaze over the meat, then returned it
back into the oven, baking for a scant 5 minutes. While that was baking, I made biscuits, adding rosemary and oregano to the mix and placing a lump of cream cheese in the center of each one. Pulled the duck out, baked the biscuits.
As I was cutting the duck, I realized that I should have roasted both of them. There is little meat to a duck. But I had not wanted to ruin both of them on my first try.
Biscuits done! I served everyone, and reminded them that this was the first time I had ever roasted duck, and to be sure that they were honest with me so that I never would force this on them again.
I was shocked! It was not greasy in the least. And it was actually tasty. I hadn't completely blown it. {
Yes, that would be pride} My husband was the only one to complain, and that was because a duck is all dark meat, and he doesn't like dark meat {
spoiled brat}.
I didn't get pictures of the roast duck, but I will leave you with dessert, homemade brownies .
Cut off a long piece of the string and center it on the dried shoot of one onion.
Loop twice and tighten. {If not secure when you hold it up, do like I did and tie it in a knot}
Wrap the shoot around one piece of string
Next, spread the string once more and tuck the onion shoot in-between.
Repeat for four hours or until your finger are turning purple from lack of blood since I had no other way of holding the string, your back is burning, your husband asks in a sarcastic voice if you've learned anything about onions {even if this homesteading thing was his idea, just bite your lip, you can get him back at a more appropriate time}, your children have informed you that they will not be eating any of the onions for the ten billionth time, and you yourself decide you hate onions. In the end you will get something that looks like this.
A word of advice, try not to do it on your carpet.
Or you could always stuff them into those saved nylon apple bags or panty hose. Makes life so much simpler, and you don't have to bore your friends to death by regaling the story of how you braided your onions for the first time.
Lets Cook! Now this is the creepiest picture I have taken yet, and I decided it had to be shared.
Slicing noodles shouldn't be such a chore. But if you do not have one of those there fancy modern noodle slicing thing-a-ma-bobbers, you will spend the next hour or two of your life painstakingly cutting flat dough into string. {I wonder how old school I am going to actually get around here} The dough was still wet. When I was finally finished, I had to allow it to dry some more. BAH HUMBUG! Destiny, my name is incredibly impatient. I have other things to do besides watching dough dry. I sucked it up and started canning preparations. And that when it happened {Please insert that dramatic music here}
Here they are laid out on the sheet, think we have enough to make it to next harvest?
