This weekend I tried a smoked duck recipe on my Big Green Egg. I have owned it since July and really love it. I truly haven't cooked a single roast dinner in my oven since I bought it, along with low n' slow cooks, pizzas, and an inordinate number of kebabs, burgers etc.
My main sources of inspiration is any of the other BGE sites on the web, or a Weber bbq book or the Pitt Cue book from the eponymous London restaurant. This place also serves much real life inspiration as they are not far from my office.
Brining isn't something I have much experience of but it helps moisten meat. I followed a recipe in the Pitt Cue book, which was a brine made with Chinese flavourings such as ginger, star anise, garlic, soy sauce and tea. I placed the duck and the brine in a vegetable compartment of a fridge as it seemed like as good a place as any and brined it for about 16 hours. The colour of the duck was a beautiful dark colour. Pitt Cue called for cooking it at 170 degrees centigrade for only 45-50 minutes. This seemed like a very short time and indeed I ended up cooking it for about the same time as other ducks I've roasted, about two hours.
it was beautifully moist, but the skin wasn't as crispy as other ducks I've cooked on the BGE, and the fatty meat was accompanied by a spring salad of leaves from the garden, with rashishes and fennel.
I will experiment with brining a duck and play around with the cooking to make a more smoky, crispy skin affair. If anyone has any suggestions for the perfect brined and smoked duck reciple on the BGE do get in touch!
My main sources of inspiration is any of the other BGE sites on the web, or a Weber bbq book or the Pitt Cue book from the eponymous London restaurant. This place also serves much real life inspiration as they are not far from my office.
Brining isn't something I have much experience of but it helps moisten meat. I followed a recipe in the Pitt Cue book, which was a brine made with Chinese flavourings such as ginger, star anise, garlic, soy sauce and tea. I placed the duck and the brine in a vegetable compartment of a fridge as it seemed like as good a place as any and brined it for about 16 hours. The colour of the duck was a beautiful dark colour. Pitt Cue called for cooking it at 170 degrees centigrade for only 45-50 minutes. This seemed like a very short time and indeed I ended up cooking it for about the same time as other ducks I've roasted, about two hours.
it was beautifully moist, but the skin wasn't as crispy as other ducks I've cooked on the BGE, and the fatty meat was accompanied by a spring salad of leaves from the garden, with rashishes and fennel.
I will experiment with brining a duck and play around with the cooking to make a more smoky, crispy skin affair. If anyone has any suggestions for the perfect brined and smoked duck reciple on the BGE do get in touch!