Ingredient

Duck

Duck is dark meat with a thick layer of fat under the skin, and almost everything about cooking it well comes down to getting that fat to render out before the meat overcooks. Treated like chicken it produces flabby skin and a greasy plate. Treated on its own terms it produces the best skin of any bird.

Why a cold pan

This is the most counter-intuitive instruction in cooking a duck breast and it is correct.

Duck breast has a thick fat layer between skin and meat. To get crisp skin, that fat has to melt and run out — and it has to do so slowly, because the fat needs far longer to render than the meat needs to cook. Put the breast into a hot pan and the skin sets and browns immediately, sealing the fat in behind it, and the meat is done before the fat has gone anywhere.

So the breast goes skin-side down into a cold, dry pan — no oil, there is plenty coming — over a low to medium heat. The pan warms gradually, the fat melts out steadily, and the skin sits in its own rendering fat and slowly crisps. It takes eight to twelve minutes and it should not be rushed.

Score the skin first, in a crosshatch, cutting through the fat but not into the meat. More cut surface means faster rendering.

Pour the fat off as it collects, into a jar. There will be a startling amount. Then the breast is turned over for a minute or two to finish the meat, and rested.

Duck against chicken

Meat colour

Duck is dark all over — ducks fly, so even the breast is worked muscle with far more myoglobin. Chicken breast is white.

Fat

Duck carries a thick subcutaneous fat layer as insulation for cold water. Chicken has comparatively little.

How it is cooked

Duck breast is commonly served pink, like a steak, because it is dark meat. Chicken is not. Whether that is appropriate, and for whom, is a food safety question — the Food Standards Agency is the authority.

Legs

Duck legs are much tougher and more sinewy than chicken legs and want long slow cooking — confit, braising, or a long roast.

Flavour

Duck is much richer and more distinctly flavoured, and stands up to strong accompaniments that would swamp chicken.

The fat

Duck fat is one of the best cooking fats there is, and rendering a duck gives you a jar of it free.

The cuts and what to do with them

• Breast — scored, rendered from cold, finished briefly, rested and sliced. Fifteen minutes of work for something that eats like a steak.
• Legs, confit — salted overnight, then cooked slowly submerged in duck fat until meltingly tender, and stored under the fat. Then crisped skin-side down before serving.
• Legs, braised — in red wine, stock and aromatics, like any tough cut.
• Legs, slow-roasted — a long stint at a low temperature on a rack renders the fat and crisps the skin, and needs almost no attention.
• Whole roast duck — slower and lower than a chicken, on a rack so the fat drains, and often started with boiling water poured over the skin to tighten it.
• Crispy aromatic duck — steamed for hours then fried or roasted, shredded, with pancakes and hoisin.
• Carcass into stock, which is richer and darker than chicken stock.
• The fat into roast potatoes. This is the best roast potato fat there is, and the reason to cook duck even if you were ambivalent about the duck.

What goes wrong

• Flabby skin. Started in a hot pan, or rushed. Cold pan, low heat, patience.
• Greasy. The fat did not render out and is still in the skin. Same cause.
• Overcooked breast. It cooks fast once turned. Most of the time in the pan is rendering, not cooking, and the meat side needs only a couple of minutes.
• Tough legs. Cooked like breast. Legs are a slow-cooking cut and need hours.
• Wet skin. Not dried before cooking. Pat it dry, and leaving it uncovered in the fridge overnight dries it further and improves the crisp.
• Smoky kitchen. Normal when rendering duck. Open a window and pour the fat off as it collects.

Common questions