For this Meat Tip Monday, we are focusing on how to roast a whole duck. First, you want to stop by either The Meat Market or Local Source foods and pick up our deal of the week whole duck. To learn how to cook a whole duck please follow these cooking tips:

Prepare Your Duck

First, you want to make sure you defrost your duck in the refrigerator for 1-2 days if the duck is frozen. If your duck is not frozen just leave the duck uncovered in the refrigerator overnight. This will allow the bird to dry and gain crispier skin. Next, you want to score the skin on the breast of the duck. This will allow some of the fat to release during the cooking process. When scoring your duck make sure to have a sharp knife and cut in a diamond pattern making sure not to cut into the breast meat below the skin. Next, season the duck with salt and stuff the cavity with garlic shallots, lemon, apple, and prunes. Make sure to sew the cavity up with a few toothpicks to make it tighter to keep the duck moist when roasting. You then want to tie the legs together and tuck in the wings for cooking.

Cooking Your Turkey

First, preheat your oven to 300° F. Once the oven is preheated place the duck on a roasting pan and cook for 1-hour breast side up. After the hour is up take the duck out of the oven and poke the skin again. Flip the duck over with the breast side down and roast for another hour. You will want to continue this process one more time until you reach a cooking time of 3 hours. As the duck cooks for its final hour you will want to prepare the glaze. Combine all the glaze ingredients into a pan and simmer until it thickens. This process should take about 10 minutes. After the duck has been cooking for 3 hours take the duck out of the oven and poke the skin again and turn up the oven temperature to 400° Fand roast for another 15 minutes with the breast facing up. Then brush the duck with glaze and cook for another 5-7 minutes. Once the duck is done cooking make sure to let it rest before serving.

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