And The Finished Duck

The duck turned out incredibly well. I didn't really have any special recipe in mind, but instead stuffed it full of herbs, garlic and an apple. In the last half hour, I removed as much of the fat from the pan as possible (to cook the rutabaga) and then added a cup of port and two tablespoons of red currant jelly. I let it liquefy and do a sort-of de-glazing and then turned the heat up to 425 (from 375) and basted every once in a while for the last twenty minutes. That really seemed to do the trick. All told, it took about three hours. One thing that really seemed to help was using a good amount of coarsely ground salt on the skin. It crisped beautifully-probably the best duck I've ever made.

Clean up was...unpleasant. But not horrible. A copper scouring pad took care of the pan and really, it only took a few minutes (hard on the hands though).