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Duck: The Amazing Five-Hour Roast Duck

Source of Recipe


From "The 150 Best American Recipes"



List of Ingredients



• One Pekin (Long Island) duck, wing tips cut off (not necessary but more elegant)
  
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  
• 2 Tbsp chopped garlic
  
• 1 small handful of thyme sprigs
  






Instructions



1. Preheat the oven to 300° F and set a rack in the middle level.
   
   
2. Remove the giblets from the duck; save the giblets and wing tips for stock, if you like. Dry the duck well with paper towels. Remove any globs of yellow fat from the two cavities. Rub the large cavity with salt and pepper and the garlic, and put the thyme in it. With a small sharp paring knife, make dozens of slits all over the duck, piercing the skin and fat, but being careful not to pierce the flesh. The easiest way to do this is to insert the knife on the diagonal, not straight in.
   
   
3. Put the duck, breast side up, on a rack set on a jelly-roll pan and put it in the oven. Every hour for 4 hours, take the pan out of the oven, pierce the duck all over with the knife, and turn it over. Each time, pour off the fat in the pan. After 4 hours, increase the oven temperature to 350° F. Sprinkle the duck with salt and pepper, and cook for about 1 hour longer, or until the skin is crisp and browned. Let rest for 20 minutes before serving.
   
   Serves 4