Grilled peking duck (pron warning)

I’ve always loved duck – but I’d never cooked one myself. Asking around the BBQ forums I learned that duck is a bit tougher to prepare than say, chicken. Duck has a thick layer of fat beneath the skin that makes it difficult to get crispy skin – and the skin, if you’ve ever had Peking Duck, is completely over the top awesome.

Some people separate the duck’s skin from the body and let it air for 24 hours or so. One gentleman here told me he just puts his lips on the duck carcass and blows air between the skin and body … yeah – I’m not ready for that.
So I watched about 20 youtube videos and finally settled on a [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaZO3p_OPnw"]method.[/ame]
I opted for the scalding method, followed by hanging the carcass over my stove with a pan underneath to catch any fluids that might escape. Note the needle tracks on the duck where I tried using my cajun injector to pump air under the skin – don’t bother trying this …

So here’s my crucified duck and I have to tell you, my wife thought I’d gone crazy. Who ever heard of drying a duck for 24 hours (unrefrigerated)? I opted not to tell her about the guy here that told me he just blew air into the raw carcass …

I planned to grill this bird on my Weber Smokey Mountain without the water pan. I was aiming for a temperature of 300-325. But Lady Luck was not with me: it was a windy day and I struggled to keep my temps below 370. Ouch – I was sure the duck was going to be dry – I was wrong but not really in a good way. This duck was a juicy SOB and when I pulled it off the grill with an internal temp of about 170, the body cavity was flooded with liquid and the skin was soft.

So I cheated – I threw the heat resistant little guy into the broiler at 500 for nearly 15 minutes – and it worked. I served the duck Chinese style with tortillas, scallions and hoisin sauce with Sam Adams on the side. Wife was happy with the dinner and she might let me crucify a duck in her kitchen again – in a year or two …

THoey1963 said:

Looks good. So, any "lessons learned"?

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Three things -

1. Cajun injector blowing air beneath the skin doesn't work.

2. Next time I will hang the duck, pit barrel cooker style, in my WSM to see how that works ... not sure if I can do two-zone cooking in a WSM (to avoid flare ups) but it should work - it will prevent pooling the rendered fat inside the body cavity and possibly help with crisping the skin.
3. Next time I dry brine under the skin (in the refrigerator) for 24 hours then try the hot water baste to shrink the skin.

THoey1963 said:

Thanks for the response.

For #2, I bought the Weber hanging rack kit. I would think that would put the duck up higher than the lower rack, so you could leave the water pan in to catch the drippings.

For #3, wouldn't it be better to do the hot water baste and then do the brine? Wouldn't the way you mentioned just wash away the brine?

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Wow, didn't realize there was a hanging rack kit for WSM - just bought one /P
(and a gasket kit)

I did not use a drip pan and kept the duck on the top grate - I was looking for the UDS effect where drippings hit the coals and fizzle back up to baste the meat - as I think about it, that explains the high temps much better than the wind. 370 is just an insane temp for the WSM ...

I was thinking in this case that the dry brine would be a good step to draw some of the moisture out of the duck fat and maybe make it easier to crisp the skin. Dry brining might make it possible to not air-dry the duck - or as my wife refers to it - crucify it over the stove ...