Roast Duck
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Adam Price
TV chef & cookbook author
Roast duck is a firm tradition in many Danish homes on Christmas Eve, where it forms the centerpiece of Christmas dinner. Here you get Adam Price's recipe for slow-roasted duck, so you get a juicy, flavorful result on the Christmas table.
You can make the duck well in advance and reheat it just before you sit down to eat – so you avoid congestion and alarm in the kitchen before your guests arrive.
Servings
: 6
servings
Ingredients
1 whole duck (approx. 3–3.5 kg)
Salt and pepper
Cooking apples (e.g. Belle de Boskoop)
Prunes (pitted)
Onion
Carrots
Celery
1 liter water (for the roasting pan)
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Instructions
Step 1/9
Place large cubes of onion, carrots and celery in the roasting pan.
Step 2/9
Clean the duck and dry it thoroughly – it must not be wet or damp. Season it well with salt and pepper.
Step 3/9
Peel the cooking apples and cut them into cubes. Cut the pitted prunes into smaller pieces of the same size as the apples.
Step 4/9
Fill the duck with apples and prunes, and close it carefully with meat skewers. Fold up the parson's nose and use it to fasten together and close the duck as well as possible. Place the duck on a rack over a roasting pan.
Step 5/9
Brown the duck at 220 °C fan heat for about 25 minutes.
Step 6/9
Then turn down to 150–160 °C fan heat and pour about 1 liter of water into the roasting pan. Roast for about another 2.5 hours. Check regularly that the duck is not drying out – add more water if necessary.
Step 7/9
After roasting is complete, the legs should feel loose when you turn them slightly. Remove the duck and let it rest on a cutting board for about 20 minutes. You can either carve it and serve the duck now, or wait to carve it and save it for later.
Step 8/9
If you made the duck earlier in the day, it should be carved and then roasted crispy again when the guests sit down to eat.
Step 9/9
Carve the duck into main pieces: breasts, legs, thighs and wings. Either you fry the pieces crispy in a large pan in duck fat, or you can give them a few minutes under the oven's grill. If you do the latter, you must not leave the oven – the duck browns quickly!
Duck gravy and fat
Step 1/2
The liquid in the roasting pan will be primarily duck fat. Pour everything through a sieve into a clear bowl.
Step 2/2
The liquid will quickly separate into fat and gravy. If you have a sauce pipette, you can suck the gravy up from the bottom. Otherwise, you can place the bowl in the freezer for about an hour and then separate the fat and gravy. Save the gravy for the duck sauce. Don't throw away the fat! Use it for red cabbage and for frying potatoes for Christmas. You can also make the thickening for the sauce with a little duck fat mixed with butter – it tastes fantastic.
Adam Price
TV chef & cookbook author
Food has played a central role in Adam Price's life, from childhood to the present day, where he can call himself a food writer, restaurateur, and cookbook author. He is perhaps best known as a TV chef on the programme 'Spise med Price', which he has made with his brother James Price since 2008.
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