The best recipe for roast duck

This recipe for roast duck is our best method for ensuring a fantastic result. On Christmas Eve or Morten's Eve, when duck is on the table, you may be hit by a little pressure of expectation; Because imagine if the duck turns out dry or tough?! You want to be sure of achieving a good result. And I can almost guarantee that with this recipe. 

TIP: Use leftover duck in this salad with duck. 

Duck with apples and prunes

In this recipe, the roast duck is made in the traditional way with a filling of apples and prunes. It gives a wonderful flavor, and the filling also tastes good served as a coarse compote for the duck meat. If you want to experiment a little with the recipe, you can easily play around with the filling. For example, add coarsely chopped orange, fresh herbs, other dried fruits such as dates or apricots. It will definitely taste wonderful too! 

Accessories for roast duck

As an accompaniment to roast duck, you can choose to serve classic accompaniments such as:

Boiled and browned potatoes

• Red cabbage
• Christmas sauce
• Chips/French fries

In addition, it is always delicious to make a salad as a crispy and fresh addition to the otherwise quite heavy meal. Here you can this fresh red cabbage salad with apples really recommended.

Andean sauce

What makes the Christmas meal unique is the good duck sauce. A real Christmas sauce, which is a brown sauce with fantastic flavor from the roast duck and/or roast pork. 

Here are the best tips for a delicious duck sauce:

• Add a lot of delicious flavoring to the dish that the duck is cooked in. It helps to give a wonderful flavor to the sauce, and is highly recommended.
• It is important that you separate most of the duck fat from the drippings. If you pour all the liquid from the roasting pan directly into the pot, your sauce will be too fatty and will also separate more easily. If you roast your duck the day before, it is super easy to separate the fat from the sauce. Here you can put the liquid from the roasting pan in the fridge, and the next day the fat will be hard on the surface of the container. Remove it (and save it for frying), and then you have clean drippings for the sauce.
• Feel free to add red wine to your duck sauce. Some people don't think it belongs in a Danish brown Christmas sauce, but it can really add the finishing touch.
• A spoonful of currant jelly adds a wonderful sweetness to the sauce. Alternatively, you can add a little honey or cane sugar, or a little ribena juice. 
• You can either thicken your sauce with wheat flour or cornstarch. The latter is used here because it is easier to control. Simply stir a little cornstarch into cold water in a glass, and then you can add the liquid continuously until the sauce is smooth and has the right consistency.

Tips for roasting duck

Below you will find the best tips on how to best defrost and prepare a roast duck.

Defrosting duck

When you buy a duck, it is often frozen. To defrost the duck properly, it must be thawed in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. You cannot take the duck out and let it thaw at room temperature. In this case, the duck will still be frozen inside, while the outer meat will get too high a temperature, which can cause the roast to go bad.

Interval drawing of duck

Some people prefer interval roasting duck over traditional slow roasting, where the duck is in the oven at low heat for one long stretch. This ensures that the duck meat is incredibly tender and juicy (as the higher temperatures melt the fat and collagen more effectively), while the break from the oven ensures that the duck does not dry out. Interval roasting may seem a bit advanced, but it is anything but: In short, you just give the duck a 30-minute break on the kitchen counter after it has been in the oven for an hour. Then it goes back into the oven and finishes cooking until it is cooked through and the skin is crispy.

Roasting duck the day before

If you are going to make a big Christmas dinner, it can be an advantage to roast your duck the day before. The result will certainly not be worse, and it is nice not to have to bother with it when you are busy with the many preparations of the day. This way, you can also roast your pork roast in the oven more easily without running out of space. If you roast your duck the day before, you should follow exactly the same procedure. However, you can let the duck cool completely before carving it. Here, distribute the pieces in a baking pan, cover it, and refrigerate it until the next day. Pour the liquid from the baking pan into a glass and refrigerate it. The next day, you can easily separate the fat from the giblets. Brush the duck pieces lightly with duck fat, and warm it in the oven at 175 degrees for about 15 minutes. Give it a little grilling in the last few minutes. You can make the giblets into a lovely brown duck sauce while the duck is warming up.