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Roast Duckling

A whole duckling roasted until golden and crispy, seasoned simply with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Roast Duckling

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Clean the duckling and pat it dry.

  3. Season the duckling inside and out with salt and pepper.

  4. Place the duckling in a roasting pan.

Roast and rest

  1. Roast in the preheated oven for about 1 hour, or until the skin is golden and crispy.

  2. Let it rest for 10 minutes before carving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Duckling
Its fat renders during roasting, helping the skin turn golden and crisp while the meat cooks.

The step that matters

Pat the duckling dry before seasoning. Surface moisture must evaporate before the skin can brown and crisp. A dry skin lets the fat render and the skin crisp in the oven instead of steaming.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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