Recipes and breed of duck for smoking

[MeatyOakerSmoker]

Hello

I was wondering if anyone has tried to smoke a duck. I'm particularly interested in what kind of duck and kind of recipe was used. At the moment I'm thinking of marinating the duck in a strongly brewed tea with maybe some star anise and cloves.

Would love to know your experiences...
Sam

[SmokinAussie]

Here's a duck on a COS... Man did I have it cranked to get the heat up on this!



To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure the breed is that important.

Duck is very fatty... and we all love that.... I'm still working out how to do a duck better. My current thoughts are that the duck needs to be marinated for 24 hours... In whatever you want.... that's not important. What is important is the execution.

I'm thinking 3 or 4 hours REALLY low and slow.. like 175F, getting warm and barely rendering fat. Then crank it as high as you can... me thinking this is why a BGE would be a good friend in a pinch and sear the skin crisp as you can as fast as you can. Little trick might be to dip the duck in a hot wok of Maltose first, before you go for the sear... I never said that....

[MeatyOakerSmoker]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I've seen some suggestions particularly in the recipes in Smoke & Spice that seem to indicate it's a good idea to steam the bird before smoking it. Seems like it would be just as controversial as a Texas Crutch to do down that road.

Seems this will require a bit more planning...

[MeatyOakerSmoker]

Reading a bit more about this on various sites it appears it isn't so much steaming the duck (although some recipes do recommend this) as it is simply using hot water to remove some of the excess fat from under the skin by quickly plugging the duck in hot water first.

I'll keep updating as I find out more and with my final product.

[SmokinAussie]

Originally Posted by IbrahimSS

Reading a bit more about this on various sites it appears it isn't so much steaming the duck (although some recipes do recommend this) as it is simply using hot water to remove some of the excess fat from under the skin by quickly plugging the duck in hot water first.

I'll keep updating as I find out more and with my final product.

This practice is an important step for Peking Duck. You also bebfit from separating the skin all over the duck first with a bicycle pump. Large retaurants in asia have air complessors just for that purpose. Once the skin is seperated, you then dunk the duck in a couldron of boiling water, which tightens up all the collagen in the skin. Then from there, the skin gets coated / marinaded and it is left to hang for hours until dry. Then it goes into a gas oven.

Smoking a duck, does not necessarilly need all those processes because you might not be shooting for th skin to be so nice and crisp, which is the key element of a peking duck. Your smoker is not going to get hot enough unless you have a BGE to blast it, which is why the maltose option might help. Anyway, let me kow how you go... there is not a lot of duck seen on this forum, so you can teach us all!

Cheers!

Bill

[landarc]

The process of pouring hot water over the skin may still be of value to you, as it does tighten the skin and the removal of some of the fat won't hurt your end product at all. I would suggest that it will take some heat to get the fat rendered on a commercial duck. This is less of a problem on a wild duck.

Being that you are in NJ, I suggest you look for a Pekin or Long Island duck, they are excellent eating and will give you an excellent product.

[caseydog]

I smoked a super-market-bought duck once. I was not pleased with the results. The flavor and texture was not as rich as what I am used to with duck.

I think I should have looked for a better quality duck, and gone with a higher temperature for a shorter time -- more of a roast with smoke.

CD

[jestridge]

Muscovy Duck ( dry land duck) Not very pretty. We have 3 Muscovy but my granddaughter wouldn't depart with them

[jestridge]

Mucovy male x Peking female = mule duck (hybred) suppose to be one of the best duck to eat

[MeatyOakerSmoker]

I hope this isn't against the forum rules but I ordered a peking duck from http://www.dartagnan.com/ for this attempt. I'm trying to avoid the supermarket ducks because I think they are the reason I hated duck for so long. When I finally had a real duck product I changed my mind.

I think I'm still going to go with the hot water to render down some of the fat under the skin. I'm going to avoid the maltose from now, partially because I want to be a purist for my first go and partially because I don't have any on hand :). If I need to jam the sucker in the oven for a short bit I might consider that.

Given the fact that this forum has some smoking gods and I'm just an amateur, I'm definitely feeling the pressure now but I'll definitely share, after all that's what we're all here for!

[landarc]

Smoking gods, hey you guys, ya'lls on fahr!

d'Artagnan is a good source for duck. Very high end, you will get a great Pekin Duck from them.

[MeatyOakerSmoker]

Experience shared here as per your request...