Christmas dinner is taken very seriously in my family, and is more or less the highlight of the entire holidays. I start cooking two days ahead – making stock for gravy, prepping the vegetables and making a start on the pudding, which is always cold rice pudding – all while people are coming and going, peeking into pots and tasting, enjoying the smells of Christmas and drinking port, and often with a Christmas movie playing in the background. That all leads up to the centrepiece of our Christmas meal, the duck, which I take out of the fridge on the morning of the 24th and get ready for the oven. I serve it with red cabbage, kale salad, classic caramel potatoes and a nice gravy, but it’s the crisp, sweet and tender roast duck that binds the entire meal together.
Roast duck, Danish-style
Prep 10 min
Cook 1 hr 40 min+
Rest 10 min
Serves 4-5
1 duck, about 2½-3kg, ideally with giblets
For the stuffing
1 beetroot, peeled
1 cox’s orange pippin apple, or similar
1 red onion, peeled
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp allspice
3 cloves
4 prunes
10 thyme sprigs
2 bay leaves
Sea salt and black pepper
Remove the giblets from inside the duck and set aside; if there is a lot of fat in the cavity, take some of it out and save it to melt for roast potatoes.
Next, make the stuffing. Cut the beetroot, apple and onion into 2cm wedges and coarsely grind the spices, then mix all the stuffing ingredients in a bowl and season. Push the stuffing mixture into the duck’s cavity, pressing it in so everything gets in there, then close up the duck with meat needles and rub the outside with more salt and pepper.
Heat the oven to 160C (140C fan)/325F/gas 3. The roasting time for the duck is 40 minutes per kilo, turning up the oven to 220C (200C fan)/425F/gas 7 for the last 20 minutes. Lay the duck breast side down on a wire rack set over a roasting tin, then pour 500ml water into the tin and roast for an hour. Turn the duck around, so it’s now sitting breast side up, and make sure there is liquid in the roasting tin all the time.
If you like, add the giblets to the juices in the roasting tin for the last 30 minutes of roasting time (or add only the heart and kidneys, and fry the liver in a little butter, season well and eat on toast for a cook’s treat).
After the duck has roasted for its allotted time, use a meat thermometer to check the temperature where the meat meets the bone at the thighs – it should be 68C. If it is, take out the duck and leave to rest for 10 minutes; otherwise, roast it for another five or 10 minutes.
Lift out and discard the giblets, if using, from the roasting tin – they have now served their purpose – then separate the fat from the juices in the tin, and save it for roasting potatoes, for adding to your red cabbage, or keep it in the fridge for another day. The liquid that is now left in the tin is your gravy.
Once the duck has rested for 10 minutes, cut it into six to eight pieces, arrange on a platter and serve with the stuffing, gravy and your choice of sides.
