Duck In The Mud Recipes

Steps:

• Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 4. Toast the star anise and coriander seeds in a dry pan until aromatic. Tip the toasted spices into a spice grinder with 2 tsp sea salt and grind into a fine powder (or crush using a pestle and mortar). Put the spice salt in a bowl, add the sugar, mix well and set aside.
• Lightly score the skin of the duck in a criss-cross pattern and heat the oil in a large casserole. Using a pair of tongs to turn it, brown the duck well on all sides, pour off the excess fat, then sit the duck breast-side up and season all over with the sugar and spice mix. Pack the plums around the outside, then scatter over the bay and pour over the vinegar and stock.
• Roast in the oven for 2 hrs or until the duck is golden and the plums have broken down. Turn the oven right up for 10 more mins to crisp up the skin. Take the duck out of the pan to rest for 10 mins and spoon the excess fat off the plums. Carve the duck and serve with a good spoonful of plums.

Steps:

• Make your breakfast campfire nice and hot. You have, of course, built your fire in a safe, deepish hollow. Get the clay mud from nearby (loam or sand doesn't work) and have it ready. Cook and eat your breakfast. Wash your hands.
• You've already cleaned your duck, getting rid of the offal, so that's done. Wipe the inside out well with a clean cloth, first, then do the outside, too (you don't want stuff in your food).
• Rub the inside of the duck thoroughly with salt and a bit of pepper.
• Clean the apple and onion. Stuff them both inside the duck's cavity.
• Fold the feathers to cover all the openings in the duck, then plaster the entire bird with the clay mud until it's about 1 inch thick.
• Place the duck in the ashes in the campfire pit and cover it well with some coals and a generous amount of wood (but don't get carried away).
• Make sure the campfire is safely away from everything flammable, safely banked. (If you have someone staying back at camp, that works, too.) Then go fishing or hunting for the day.
• When you come back for dinner, dig the duck out of the ashes (it should still be hot) and break off the hardened clay. The feathers will come off with the mud.
• Pull off any remaining feathers, and eat your delicious duck!

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325°. Pierce duck skin all over with a fork. Mix remaining ingredients; rub over outside of duck. Place duck on rack in a shallow roasting pan; add 1 inch of water., Roast duck, uncovered, until a thermometer inserted in thigh reads 180°, 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Remove from oven; let stand 15 minutes before carving. If desired, skim fat and thicken pan drippings for gravy. Serve with duck.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Remove giblets and neck from duck cavity and discard or reserve for another use. Cut off excess fat from duck cavity.
• Place duck, breast side down (wings up), on a rack in a roasting pan; add water to come just below the rack. Sprinkle duck with pepper and brush with a little soy sauce.
• Roast 30 minutes, undisturbed. Prick the back all over with point of a sharp knife, then flip bird onto its back. Sprinkle with pepper and brush with soy sauce again. Add a little more water to the pan if the juices are spattering (carefully--you don't want to get water on the duck).
• Roast 20 minutes, then prick the breast all over , and brush with soy sauce. Roast 10 minutes; brush with soy sauce. Roast 5 or 10 minutes more if necessary, or until duck is a glorious brown all over and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thigh measures at least 155 degrees. Let rest 5 minutes before carving and serving.