Duck, Chinese Style (Ed and Eva)

Ingredients
Duck
Red wine
Soy sauce
Salt and pepper

Stuffing:
Small white onions
Pitted prunes
Apricots
Figs

Duck coating:
3 Tbs Soy sauce
2 Tbs honey
¾ cup orange juice
¼ cup rice vinegar
(usually too much liquid, recommend reducing the amount of vinegar and orange juice)

Directions
Duck Preparation: Remove duck giblets, freeze and save for future soup. Save the liver. Serve lightly salted & fried for a high cholesterol, simply delicious cracker snack when served with sherry, in front of a fire while listening to beautiful music.

Duck Drying: The night before the meal is to be served, separate the skin from the flesh, using a very sharp small knife. Do not pierce the skin. Use you finger inserted between the skin and flesh to complete the task. Dry the duck inside and outside with paper towels. Paint the inside with red wine into which salt and pepper has been mixed. Paint the outside with soy sauce. Hang the duck in the cellar. I use a string tied under the wings and connected to an electric conduit in the basement joist space. Every serious duck cook should have a permanent duck string hanging in the basement for this significant step. Place a pan under the duck to catch the drippings. I like to check the duck before I go to bed to be sure no one has spirited the duck away and that the drippings go in the pan and not on the floor. Next morning the duck skin will be dry.

Coating: mix soy sauce, honey, orange juice, and rice vinegar (refer to Joy of Cooking, pg 621.)

Baking: Place duck on rack in pan with two cups water to prevent fat from smoking. Pick a small rack so if you are baking potatoes they can sit in the fat and not be raised above it on the rack. This will impart a nice brown color to the potatoes. Stuffing can be added at this point. Set in lower part of oven. Bake @ 425oF, breast up 20 minutes and breast down 20 minutes. Remove duck from oven. Remove the fat with a baster. Do this several times so the duck does not smoke or juices overflow in the pan. Using a sharp short knife cut slits through the skin without piercing the flesh. Do this where the fat is thickest. The purpose is to provide an easy way for the fat to escape. Continue cooking at a reduced oven temperature of 350oF. The total oven time, including the first 40 minutes is 2 hours. Alternate breast up and down at about 20 minute intervals. If the skin is getting too dark, build an aluminum foil tent over the bird. After removal from the oven, allow the juices to redistribute for 10 minutes before carving.

Implements

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