How to roast a whole duck so that fat drips out easily and the skin gets crispy

duckroasting

Duck is high in fat, so when roasting a whole duck you can end up with a lot of fat left with the duck inside the skin and soggier skin. How should the duck be prepared to avoid this?

Best Answer

Among poultry, duck is exceptionally fatty, and a lot of its fat is directly underneath the skin. This can present a challenge when cooking, because we want the fat to render out and the skin to become crispy and delicious.

The most common way to do this, classically, is to:

  • Dock (or less commonly, score) the skin all over, to permit the fat an exit path (when doing this, be careful to cut through the skin into the fat layer, but hopefully not into the meat itself)
  • Roast at a relatively low temperature for to permit the fat time to melt and drip away; many recipes then finish on a higher temperature for crisping and browning

Like all poultry, salting the duck a day ahead, and then letting it sit in the refrigerator will also promote crispiness, but it is far less of a factor with duck which cooks and renders for a longer period of time.

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