Sonya, you will be proud! I roasted my first duck. Sonya has been telling me for years that it is easy to roast a whole bird, and over the last few months I have done quite a few chickens. And my first duck was a success. I used some advice from How to Cook Everything and pricked the skin all over before I put it in and every 15 minutes thereafter. I made some roast potatoes and broccoli on the side--Ant was a very happy man. Meat, potatoes, veg, and lots of gravy is his idea of heaven.
After the roasting, I poured off the duck fat. I am told (by Jamie Oliver, and my friend Geary!) that duck fat makes the best roast potatoes. So I have this little jar to use for our next roast dinner. Bittman said that I needed to pour off the fat but not the juices--I have no idea if I did this correctly! I just poured in everything in the pan. I suppose that later the fat and juices will separate more convincingly and I'll know if I managed it.
