How do I roast a whole duck so the skin is crisp?

Duck carries a thick fat layer under the skin that a chicken does not. Get that fat out and the skin becomes glass; leave it in and you get flabby skin sitting on a greasy bird. Everything in this method is about giving the fat somewhere to go and time to get there.

What you'll need

• A whole duck, typically 2–2.5kg
• A rack that fits in a deep roasting tin
• A heatproof container for the rendered fat
• A skewer or the tip of a sharp knife
• Kitchen paper

Step by step

1. Dry the bird, inside and out.Take it out of its packaging, pat it completely dry, and if you have time leave it uncovered on a rack in the fridge overnight. Dry skin is the single biggest factor in crisp skin. Salt the skin at the same time — it draws more moisture out.
2. Prick the skin, not the meat.Angle a skewer or knife tip almost flat and make dozens of shallow punctures all over the fatty areas — breast, thighs, the fat pads near the tail. You are opening drainage channels through skin and fat. If you go straight in and hit the meat, juices escape and the breast dries.
3. Sit it on a rack over a deep tin.The bird must be raised out of its own fat or the underside boils. A deep tin is essential — a whole duck can render a litre or more, and an overflowing shallow tin in a hot oven is a fire hazard.
4. Roast low and long, breast side up.150–160°C for around two hours for a 2kg bird. Low heat renders fat steadily without the skin burning first and sealing it in. Some cooks start breast down for 30 minutes and turn — it helps the legs but risks tearing the skin on the turn.
5. Pour the fat off two or three times.Every 40 minutes or so, carefully take the tin out and pour the rendered fat into a heatproof container. This is scalding liquid fat; use oven gloves, pour away from yourself and never into a plastic tub. Duck fat keeps for months in the fridge and is the best roast potato fat there is.
6. Check the legs, which are what govern doneness.Probe the thickest part of the thigh, away from bone. Duck legs are dark, well-worked muscle full of connective tissue and are best around 75–80°C, well past the point where they are merely safe. Duck breast on its own is served pink; a whole bird is not, because the legs dictate.
7. Blast at 220°C to finish.Ten to fifteen minutes at high heat at the very end, watching it. The skin will tighten, darken and crisp. If you want a glaze — honey, soy, orange, five spice — brush it on for the last five minutes only, because it will burn.
8. Rest 15–20 minutes, then joint rather than carve.A duck does not carve like a chicken; the breast is narrower and the leg joint sits differently. Take the legs off at the joint, then take each breast off the crown in one piece and slice it. Rest on a rack so the skin underneath stays crisp.

Tips

• Pour hot fat through a fine sieve into a clean jar. Once it sets it will keep in the fridge for several months and transforms roast potatoes.
• Never pour rendered fat down a sink. It sets in the trap and in the drain, and it is one of the more common causes of a blocked kitchen waste.
• A duck feeds fewer people than its weight suggests — there is a lot of frame and fat. A 2kg duck serves three, maybe four with plenty of other things on the table.
• Steaming or simmering the duck for 30 minutes before roasting is a legitimate shortcut that pulls a lot of fat out early, though you sacrifice some flavour to the water.

Common mistakes

• Roasting a duck like a chicken at 190°C throughout — The skin sets before the fat under it has rendered, so the fat stays where it is and the skin never crisps.
• Leaving the rendered fat in the tin — The bird ends up part-frying in it, the underside goes soft, and a deep tin of very hot fat is genuinely dangerous to move.
• Pricking straight down into the flesh — Each hole becomes an escape route for the meat's own juices, so the breast dries out while you are trying to help the skin.

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