Bring The Duckus – Gusface Rotisserie Duck

A few weeks ago when the Grillah Clan were in town to visit I wanted to prepare a delicious feast for dinner.

Nurse Ratchet was insistent that it can’t be something I’ve already written about, she wanted something ‘special’.  With that in mind I decided to try something I’d wanted to do for a while…  rotisserie duck!

Hey that duck stole my bagel!

About 3 years ago we ate rotisserie duck at Momofuku Ssam Bar in New York – it was one of those life altering meals that is so freakin’ delicious you are concerned that every meal following will taste like cardboard.

I bought two ducks and put them on a brine 24 hours before the cook – I used half water and half orange juice for the liquid and 1tbsp salt per litre.

 

I set the rotisserie unit up in the Grillennium Falcon and put in two baskets of charcoal for indirect heat.  I didn’t take measure the BBQ temperature throughout this cook but it’s not a low and slow, we’re cranking the heat up a bit more to make sure we render off that fat and get nice crispy skin.

You want to make a series of cuts or piercings on the duck so all that fat can render out – this will also allow it to self-baste during the cook.

I wanted to make a sauce to go with the duck, and as luck would have it a few days before the cook my buddy over at Home Cooked Heston posted up this recipe for Duck A L’Orange so I thought I would use the sauce recipe from that dish (I subbed in Cointreau for the Grand Marnier as that’s what I had in the bar).

 

For side dishes I decided on smashed potatoes and brussel sprouts.  For the latter I of course went with the version that includes bacon and almonds so that it doesn’t taste too healthy.

I feel like I’m forgetting an ingredient…

The duck took around 3.5 hours to cook – I added some smoke during from macadamia shells so as not to overpower it.

 

The duck is ready when the thigh area reaches an internal temperature of 71 degrees celsius.  The only down side to cooking rotisserie style is it’s harder to keep the duck breasts that nice medium-rare pink as you have to cook the other parts up to temp.

 

The duck was nice and succulent having basted in its own fat for the past 3 hours and had a good hint of smoke.  The orange sauce was great too, I’ll be sure to use that recipe again next time I cook duck.

The duck from Ssam Bar still kicks this duck’s ass though, so I’ll have to make my way back to NYC for further research one day!