French · Main
Duck a l'Orange
Whole roast duck with a proper bigarade — caramel, vinegar and bitter orange in balance, none of the syrupy sweetness that killed the dish's name
- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 100 min
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
- Whole duck — 1 (about 2.2 kg)
- Fine salt — 14 g
- Black pepper — 2 g
- Oranges — 3 (zest of 1, juice ~200 ml, segments of 1)
- Lemon juice — 20 ml
- Caster sugar — 40 g
- White wine vinegar — 40 ml
- Grand Marnier — 30 ml
- Brown chicken/duck stock — 400 ml
- Thyme — 4 sprigs
- Bay leaf — 1
- Cornflour — 6 g (slurried in 15 ml water)
Method
- Salt the duck inside and out; rest uncovered in the fridge 12–24 h for dry skin. Prick fatty areas; truss.
- Roast breast-up at 160 °C for 60 min on a rack, then 15 min at 210 °C, basting, until skin is lacquered mahogany; leg core 80 °C, breast will carry to ~62 °C at the crown.
- Rest the bird 20 min, breast down.
- Gastrique: cook sugar to a deep amber caramel; stop with vinegar (stand back). Add orange juice, lemon juice and zest; reduce by half.
- Add stock, thyme, bay and roasting juices (fat poured off); simmer 10 min; strain.
- Thicken lightly with cornflour slurry to a glossy nap; finish with Grand Marnier; season.
- Warm orange segments in the sauce 1 min.
- Carve; spoon sauce over legs and sliced breast.