Roast duckling

I may have put this recipe on the BLOG earlier, but since 'tis the season for different meats (non-chicken, pork, or ground beef) I am posting it again.

Our favorite duck is l'orange -- that's with an orange crust. And I'll address that as an add-on.

I have to state at the beginning any left over duck, put into a large pot and covered with water and boiled until the meat falls off the bones, makes the BEST, BEST, BEST soup in the world.

Back to roast duck.

Items needed:

1 duck (thawed). You will probably get it from the butcher frozen. Allow two days in the fridge to thaw completely.
salt - sea salt preferred
pepper - coarse ground preferred
garlic powder or garlic salt

Liberally coat the duckling with salt, pepper, and garlic powder/salt. Put on rack in a pan in the oven preheated to 350 degrees. Cook for two hours. Duck tends to be very greasy. I slit the skin before I put it in the oven, and cook it breast down, that way the fat drips into the pan and doesn't soak into the duck.

Remove from oven and let rest for 15 minutes before cutting up. The pan drippings are mostly fat, but you can skim off the fat and find a nice juice if you wish to make an unthickened gravy.

For duck l'orange, after one hour I liberally spread all sides of the duck with orange marmalade. This also flavors any pan drippings. It's very good. I've also used cranberry sauce (the canned kind) and I've used a cranberry wine reduction to pour over the duck after it's sliced.

Serve with au gratin potatoes and peas with pearl onions. Yummmmmm.

ttfn