CookEat Recipe
Braised Duckling with Cherries
Whole spiced duck roasted under a thin pork covering, then braised and served with a strained cherry and sherry sauce.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Heat a conventional oven to 200°C. Have a poultry supplier prepare a tender young duck that weighed four pounds before its head, feet and viscera were removed, singeing off any remaining pinfeathers as needed. Use that same prepared whole bird, wipe it dry and truss it with food-safe kitchen string. Keep raw poultry refrigerated until preparation and do not wash it.
Step 2
Season the duck with one teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of ground black pepper, two saltspoons of ground cinnamon and one saltspoon of freshly grated nutmeg. Cover the bird all around with very thin slices of plain raw skinless pork fatback and tie them firmly in place.
Step 3
Finely slice the carrot, turnip, onion, two celery branches, one peeled garlic clove, two parsley branches and one ounce of lean raw pork ham intended for cooking. Put them in a hob- and oven-safe, acid-compatible braising pan with half an ounce of butter, one bay leaf, two whole cloves, one sprig of thyme and one small whole blade of mace. Lay the duck over them and roast uncovered for about thirty minutes as an initial guide, turning it occasionally and watching that the vegetables do not burn.
Step 4
Measure one gill of finished Demi-Glace before loosening that measured portion with a little hot unsalted White Broth, selecting its veal-bones-and-aromatics-only branch without optional beef or poultry ingredients. If the demi-glace was refrigerated or thawed, bring this diluted portion to a rolling boil while stirring and check at least 74°C. Also have one gill of finished Tomato Sauce hot and ready, reheating it to a rolling boil and checking at least 74°C first if refrigerated or thawed. Pour one gill of dry white wine and both prepared sauces over the partly roasted duck. Mix lightly, cover the pan with its fitted lid and continue immediately in a conventional oven reduced to 180°C for about twenty-five minutes as a guide. Continue as needed until the thickest breast and innermost thigh reach at least 82°C away from bone and the pork covering and pan contents reach at least 71°C.
Step 5
Lift the whole duck onto a hot serving dish. Untie it, remove and discard the pork covering and remove all trussing string. Keep the cooked duck at 60°C or hotter while finishing its sauce.
Step 6
Skim the fat from the surface of the same pan gravy. Pass the gravy through a fine conical strainer into a clean saucepan and bring it to a boil. Keep the strained cooked vegetables separately for a future demi-glace preparation, cooling them promptly and refrigerating at 4°C or below if not used immediately; do not add them to the measured finished demi-glace portion for this dish.
Step 7
Measure one pint of fresh sound cherries before removing their stems and stones. Remove the stems and stones, then add all the recovered pitted cherries to the strained gravy with two tablespoons of sherry. Boil briskly for ten minutes.
Step 8
Pour all this cherry sauce over the whole duck, sprinkle with a little freshly chopped parsley and serve hot.
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