How to smoke a duck

May 8, 2009 4:57 PM

I have two ducks I want to smoke for tomorrow and am looking for recipe (marinade, brine, etc.) suggestions. Bonus points for methods that let me cook the 2 ducks in different ways yet are mostly similar.

Tomorrow, I'll be cooking 2 ducks. I have a smoker and am planning to smoke them, but am a little confused about the spices and marinades that I should use. Cooks' illustrated (which I usually trust) suggests that brining ducks is a bad idea since they are fatty; other random sites on the internet seem to disagree. So I'm looking for hivemind's suggestions on what I should do with the ducks. I'd prefer to only use the smoker, since it'll be hot indoors.

Since there are two birds, it'd be nice to do something somewhat different for each one of them; however, I'd prefer not to do too much extra work, so maybe some different marinades or what not is appropriate. I will be smoking with apple wood chips.

posted by bsdfish to Food & Drink (7 answers total)

I would do one fruity and one spicy. One of my favorite things to smoke was catfish in a super spicy cajun style rub. I agree that you don't need to marinate duck, since it is unlikely to dry out and the smoker will flavor it well. That doesn't mean you should avoid it if you want to use it -besides, brining and marinating are different things, brining relying on salt and cellular osmosis, marinades relying on acidity.

Cajun Rub
posted by oneirodynia at 5:32 PM on May 8, 2009

Best answer: For my money, if you're going to smoke it, that will provide plenty of flavor- and duck is unique enough as it is. Maybe do a light glaze of a fruity sauce toward the end of cooking time. Duck pairs quite famously with orange. You could melt some orange marmalade, and maybe add a little lime juice for some extra zing. Ooh, and maybe a little cayenne, as well.

I've actually had trouble with duck drying out on me before- but I claim full responsibility for poor fire control and technique. I would smoke it at a high temp- 300 to 350 or so- for a shorter amount of time. If it's not cooking like you want it to, there's no shame in foiling it for a while. I think the fat might tend to render out, so you want to cook it pretty fast. Use a probe thermometer if you've got one.

And let us know how it turns out!
posted by Shohn at 7:04 PM on May 8, 2009

Duck does dry out easily. Brine them tonight!
posted by raisingsand at 7:33 PM on May 8, 2009

Response by poster: Thanks for the input guys. Should I smoke them whole, or cut into halves/pieces?
posted by bsdfish at 8:39 PM on May 8, 2009

Best answer: Definitely brine them. I'd smoke them whole, cut into halves they'll cook too fast to really get the smokey flavor you want.
posted by signalnine at 11:21 PM on May 8, 2009

If you have the chance, I'd suggest doing one with a wood smoke, and the other with tea. Either black or green--white would be too delicate.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 2:22 PM on May 9, 2009

Response by poster: Duck report: I brined both birds in Apple juice, salt, cloves & thyme for 12 hours. I then air-dried them for about 2, smoked them over apple wood chips for about 5 hours (until ~140 internal temp; I had major problems keeping the heat in the smoker up) and finished them off on a hot grill for about 20 minutes.

Overall, the ducks tasted great and were a hit; however, the amount of work required (and expense) was absurd. I could've saved a lot of money by buying a few smoked birds from the local Asian market, but this was a lot of fun. If you're considering doing it yourself, leave yourself lots of time -- it'll take quite a while.
posted by bsdfish at 12:12 AM on May 10, 2009