[Sca-cooks] Duck a l'orange - a la Toulouse

[Stefan li Rous]

Christianna replied to me with:
> :) 0k Stefan, when I get a free minute I'll try and work up a recipe 
> for you. Twice baked refers to the fact that we always roasted the 
> ducks first, let them cool, and then baked them a second time right 
> before service, allowing the skin to get crispy.  The first time 
> around involves piercing the duck skin all over and rubbing it with 
> salt - this helps render much of the  fat out.
Okay. I'd wondered about this. I have a recipe from the Welsh cooking 
book which has been mentioned here before that coats the inside and 
outside of the duck with salt for the same reason, which I've been 
wanting to do. So I was debating between the two. Now I may just 
combine the two. Sigh. Yes, I seldom cook something exactly like the 
recipe calls for, often because I will try to combine the best features 
of two different recipes.

When you roasted the ducks, did you do it in the oven or some other 
way? What is the difference between the two times? Are they at the same 
temperature? Or is it just that the first time being packed in salt 
that the skin doesn't crisp but does so the second time. Although I'm 
thinking that maybe using a lower temperature 300 or 325 degrees the 
first time and 350 or 400 degrees the second time might be best? Since 
the second time the interior is cooked and you are just wanting to 
crisp the skin.
>  The allspice is sprinkled all over and inside the cavity, the oranges 
> are squeezed over the outside and some inside, mostly the inside juice 
> comes from the orange halves.
Okay, this is much clearer to me now. I think this is most of what I 
need, although an oven temperature and approximate time might help.
>
> The duck reduction is a stock made from duck parts, reduced, thickened 
> with a roux (I won't be using a flour roux, may try to do something 
> with another
> thickener this time or just go with an au jus consistancy),
Hmmm. Okay I was thinking of the drippings from baking the duck as the 
stock after filtering it, and reducing that. It sounds like here though 
you want to take the duck insides and misc. parts and boil them in 
water to make the stock and then make a roux from that?
> and then finished with the liqueur.
Approximately how much liqueur? Does the liquor get rubbed on the duck? 
Or added to the rouz?

Thanks,
   Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
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