Roast Christmas duck with honey-spice glaze

In my family, Turkey is a place, not a meal. We’re much more likely to tear into a leg of Karoo lamb as a Christmas feast than an oversized and inbred chicken. This year, though, we’re doing something different. The honey-glazed skin and juicy flesh of this duck will make a believer out of you too – not to mention the fact that it will make your kitchen smell like an explosion in a mince pie factory. In a good way.

I’m surprised that we don’t see Chinese five spice powder more often in Christmas food: although it’s traditionally an Asian spice, its heady combination of cinnamon, cloves, fennel, Szechuan pepper and star anise is perfect for the festive season.
Crispy glazed skin, infused with deliciously Christmassy spices – and it pretty much comes with the best roast potatoes ever. The timings will change depending on the size of your duck, or if you’re roasting two ducks at the same time (which is advisable, seeing as there’s not a lot of meat left once the fat’s run off.)

Roast Christmas duck with honey-spice glaze

Ingredients

1 defrosted Pekin duck (mine weighed 1.9 kilograms)
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons Chinese five spice powder
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Method

1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees celsius.

2. Take out the giblets, rinse duck under cold water, and pat it dry with paper towel (inside and out). If you’re known to be a bit of a pansy, get someone else to do this bit for you because it’s not pretty.
3. Trim off excess fat, and pull out any leftover quills with tweezers.
4. Now we must deal with your duck’s fatty jacket. You want as much of the fat to render as possible, which means (a) nice crispy skin and (b) the tastiest roast potatoes later. Score the skin, just cutting through the fat without touching the meat. If this seems like too much co-ordination, just poke it all over with a skewer.
4. Truss it, by poking the tail up into the cavity and tying the legs together with a piece of butcher’s twine.
5. Put it on a rack over a roasting tray, and put it in the oven for an hour, breast-side up.
6. Pour yourself a glass of wine.
7. Once the hour’s up, take it out and poke it all over with a sharp knife to let out more of the glorious golden fat. Turn it over (breast-side down), then set a timer for another hour. (You can pour out some of the fat now too, if you want to get started on those potatoes.)
8. Make the glaze by melting the remaining ingredients together in a saucepan – you may need to add a tablespoonful of water to thin it out.
9. Once the second hour is up, take duck out and brush it generously with the glaze. Turn it over, and brush the breast-side too, not neglecting the drumsticks, and put it back into the oven.
10. Turn your oven up to 180 degrees celcius, and watch that duck like a hawk. It shouldn’t take more than five minutes for the glaze to go crisp and deep golden-brown – but it’s very susceptible to burning, so be careful.
11. Remove. Let it sit for 10 minutes before carving (this is coincidentally the absolute maximum time you can spend admiring it before being overwhelmed by the need to eat it with your bare hands.)

Photos by Lauren Edwards

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