Best Duck Recipes

Traditionally made with beef, this Vietnamese Pho dish greatly benefits from the meatiness of duck, in combination with the classic Pho spices and garnishes. Although the recipe calls for the addition of foie gras, it is an optional indulgence. - Valaer MurrayFrom Chef Anita Lo of Annisa

This simple salad is tossed with a hot dressing, made from the caramelized bits left in the pan after sautéing the livers, which slightly wilts the greens and adds additional duck flavor. - Valaer MurrayFrom Anita Lo of AnnisaClick here to see the post Cooking Class with Chef Anita Lo

Thai food is really stepping out there for me, especially because I'm sick of my hamburgers-every-night-for-dinner routine. This was the first time I had ever tried duck, and I have to say it was amazing.    Recipe from Sizzling Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonders by Emeril Lagasse.

The idea of stewing or braising duck with garden peas as a summertime dish dates back at least to the eighteenth century. In 1769, Elizabeth Raffald gave a recipe for half-roasted duck stewed with “good gravy, a little mint, and three or four sage leaves”; boiled green peas are added as soon as the gravy has thickened. Eliza Acton, seventy-six years later, offers instructions for stewing ducks, then notes that “they may be served with a small portion only of their sauce, laid in a circle, with green peas à la Francaise, heaped high in the center . . .” In her 1879 volume The Cookery Book (later called Margaret Sim’s Cookery), described by a contemporary magazine as being “no unworthy sequel to that of the classical Meg Dodds [sic]”, the Scottish writer Margaret Sim calls for braising the bird “in the usual way” and separately cooking peas with shredded lettuce, green onions, and parsley as a garnish. According to the early twentieth-century restaurant chronicler Lieutenant Colonel Newnham-Davis, Lord Dudley (presumably the thirteenth Baron Dudley, Ferdinando Dudley Henry Lea Smith) considered the dish as one of the possible main courses for a typical British dinner “fit for an emperor,” along with neck of venison and chicken with asparagus. The combination of duck and peas is hardly fashionable today, but the dish is delicious. Recipe courtesy of cookbook The British Table: A New Look at the Traditional Cooking of England, Scotland, and Wales by Colman Andrews. Click here to purchase your own copy. 

I will, as I always do, cook duck for Thanksgiving. The reason is the fat. A duck may look slimmer, but when cooked it rarely dries out, while a turkey that’s leaner often does. To choose a leaner meat may be a good idea in general, but I definitely prefer something tastier. Related: A Toast of Trumpets  If you think the duck renders too much fat while baking, I suggest you spoon off the overflow for use in other treats. Potatoes fried in duck fat are heavenly and a duck-fat omelette is marvelous. When done right, duck fat even stores really well. Related: Carmelized Apple Tart  I also recommend using all the parts that come with it. The liver can be chopped up and sautéed with shallots, coriander, and cumin or seasoned with lime and cilantro for a perfect appetizer. The neck (and head and feet) and rest of the giblets make a great base for a stock (see below). This week’s recipe is my own creation, but I learned the baking method from both my mother and Elizabeth David (French Provincial Cooking, 1960). Happy Thanksgiving. — Johanna Kindvall Related: Bacon Cups