Oma's Traditional Roast Duck Recipe

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This German roast duck recipe is so easy to make for your traditional holiday dinner. With very little work, it goes into the oven and you have time to make all the trimmings. For me, that's potato dumplings (with roasted bread crouton inside) and red cabbage.

You'll find that the following method of how to cook duck is very tasty and very easy. Perfectly delicious intimate dinner for two!

Oma's Traditional Roast Duck Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 duck (about 4 lb)
• 1 apple, quartered
• 2 stalks celery, coarsely chopped
• 1 onion, quartered
• salt and pepper or seasoning salt

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 325° F.
• Rinse duck under running water. Remove any innards. Pat dry with paper toweling.
• Season duck, inside and out with salt and pepper or seasoning salt.
• Stuff apple, celery, and onion into duck's cavity. Either sew shut with kitchen twine or use skewers to close cavity. 
• Place duck into shallow roasting pan.
• Roast in preheated oven for 2½ to 3 hours or until internal temp reaches 180°F and leg joint moves freely. About ½ hour before it is finished, baste with pan juices.
• Remove from oven. Tent with foil and let sit about 10 minutes before serving.
• Cut duck into 4 pieces and serve.

I really don't remember Mutti cooking duck that often. Perhaps, because most ducks will only serve about 4 and our family had 5 very hungry people. That would make an expensive meal. 

However, it's perfect for an intimate dinner for two. Or, if you wanted to keep up with German Christmas traditions, you could make several. Traditional for Christmas, but perfect for Easter as well.

I was surprised how easy it was to make duck this way. I know I've seen it done various ways to remove some of the fat by poking the skin with a fork either before or during the roasting time.

However, cooking it in the method above, the duck was very moist and not fatty at all. There was a fair amount of fat in the roasting dish which I saved for other uses.

The only thing that is really needful is knowing that a duck doesn't usually have too much meat. The duck (4 lb) shown above served 3 of us with some leftovers. 

More German Poultry Recipes

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