Roast Duck Stuffed With Apples

We had roast duck stuffed with apples tonight, and although it was a pretty good success with my family, it needed improvement.  We gave it an 8, except for Noah who gave the duck a perfect 10.  We also gave the potatoes all 8's except for Owen who gave them a 9.  This was a simple recipe, but in my quest to expand my family's tastes in meat (mostly hamburger and chicken breasts, two of my least favorite cuts of meats but their favorites), I will try again to better the duck I make next time, so stay tuned for Cook's Illustrated's take on how to roast a duck.  I'm excited to try it :)  I first had duck in Germany for Christmas there, and I was delighted.  It was so rich and flavorful, and my host-mother knew just how to prepare it.  I did not succeed in cutting out enough fat, so I'll have to do better at that next time.  Anyway, here's the recipe for what I did make, and the only changes I made to the recipe is to add potatoes to the roasting pan, to cook the duck on a rack, and to make a roux for the gravy rather than use cornstarch.  I'm not a big fan of cornstarch in my gravy.  With the gravy, for six servings, each serving had 497 calories, and that includes the potatoes and eating the apples if you want to.

Ingredients:

1 young duckling

salt, pepper, paprika

1 onion, chopped into wedges

5 potatoes, chopped

 4 T butter, melted

 1.5 c water

some chicken broth  for basting

5-6 medium sized tart apples (i.e. Granny Smith)

Preparation

Thaw the duckling over night in the fridge. Next day remove the giblets pack from the inside of the duck. Rinse duck with cold water inside and out. Pat dry with paper towels. Cut off the neck skin and the tail section, where most of the fat is stored. Make a cut in the skin on the breast side towards the tail. Remove any fat from under the skin if necessary. Season duck inside and outside with salt, pepper and a little paprika.  Preheat oven to 400.

Wash and peel the apples, remove core. Cut in wedges and fill the duck as necessary, do not overfill because the duck could fall apart during roasting.  Place duck in a roasting pan, breast down.
Add onion and potato to the bottom of the roasting pan with a little hot water,  pour butter evenly over the duck. Roast uncovered in a pre-heated oven for 1.5 - 2 hours. When the back of the duck is browned turn duck breast side up. Baste duck several times during roasting and in the last 10 minutes baste the duck with the beer or salty water and increase the temperature to 450° F. This will create a nice crusty skin.

Remove duck from roasting pan, remove ties and apples and let duck rest covered with tin foil. Remove the onions from the pan, loosen drippings, remove fat from sauce (optional) by transferring it into a Gravy Separator or if you make the duck a day ahead, you can finish the gravy the next day. Transfer the gravy strained into a small pot and place in the fridge over night. The next day you can scrape off the hardened fat from top with a spoon. Finish the sauce: Make a roux, then heat the gravy  and season to taste.