MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05

Title: Xxcarol's Simply Ducky
Categories: Xxcarol, Duck
Yield: 10 Servings

7 lb Whole dressed duck
1/3 c Jufran brand banana sauce
1/3 c Thai 'Hot-Sweet' sauce
1/4 c Datu Puti brand soy sauce
1 lg Sweet white onion

I've been wanting to cook a Duck since I was in college but my
skills at the start when I moved out from home were not up to that
and the price was beyond college student means. For years though
it's been in the back of my mind as a "wanna try that".

About 3 weeks ago in the cooking echo, I saw a lovely recipe and
mentioned that Duck is pretty hard to find here but I kept it in
mind. A week later, one of the rare times when they have Duck at
the commisary occured and I got one. It's a touch over 7 lb. It sat
in the freezer while we contemplated recipes. My initial intentions
were to put it in the rotisserie with a dry rub but it turned out
to not fit my unit, being about 3" too long.

Next I went to plan "B" which was to line my biggest baking pan
with opened cans as I didnt have a rack to raise it out of the
grease with here and Duck I was told is a very greasy meat. I was
all setup to do it that way when Don went to the exchange and got
me a mother's day gift of a real covered unit (pyrex bottom, metal
lifting rack, metal lid) that just perfectly fit the duck.
Yippiee!

After perusing many recipes, we settled on a simple adaption. I
normally try a new food the first time, in a simpler cooking style.
Having not even tasted restraunt Duck in 10 years, I had little
memory so was going on other's experience and what they used. I
decided pre-steaming was probably a good idea but a bit too much
for a first time duck experiment.

Using ideas from many other recipes, we settled on a simple way
using things I have here and didnt have to go out shopping for. The
Datu Puti brand soy sauce is considerably lower-sodium than
Kikkoman Lite and tastes much better. In fact, all their line of
sauces are lower sodium but none are marked "low sodium". I've
found all of them to be excellent. I also find all the Jufran brand
products to be lower sodium and extremely tastey, so the
"hot-sweet" sauce here was Jufran brand as well.

Mix the 3 sauces in a plastic bowl and let sit while washing the
duck out. I set the duck in a suspended strainer that has
adjustable sides and sits at the top of the sink. It seemed
"drying the duck" was used in almost every recipe so I let it dry
for 1 hour.

Once ready, I heated the oven to 425?F then slathered the sauce on
all sides and cooked it with the lid on the roaster, for 30 minutes
"breast up". I cut the onion in half and stuffed the cavity with that.

I then reduced the heat to 375?F and flipped it over, re-saucing
it well on all sides then baking another 30 minutes. I raised the
temperature to 425?F and did another 20 minutes "breast up" and
re-sauced. At the end, we took the lid off the roaster, and
re-sauced the top (breast) and let it "crisp" another 15 to
20 minutes.

The sugars in the sauces made for a lovely dark flavorful skin that
was somewhat crispy at the topside. We let it sit on the top of the
stove to "set" for about 15 minutes then started picking off
favored parts.

Perfection for a family where we all love dark meat and white meat
gets used mostly in chicken salad. I said "feeds 6" above as an
estimate but we don't eat that much meat so for us, it would be
more like 10 servings. There's plenty of drippings and fat rendered
out which is currently smothering the leftovers in a sort of
"confit" type of arrangement. There's a perfect duck carcass in the
freezer awaiting being made into duck soup.

The giblets went into a pot of water with just chinese 5 spice
added and the broth has Don in rapures.

We served it with sticky rice and green beans. The onion got all
eaten up as a side nosh.

Recipe by xxcarol, May 14, 2007

MMMMM
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Win32
* Origin: The Fool's Quarter, fqbbs.synchro.net (1:105/500)