Duck à L’orange

• How to cut up a duck
• How to sauté, grill, and braise duck
• How to make a gastrique and use it in sweet and sour sauces
• How to make confit and rillettes
• How to pressed duck is

My first roast duck ended in disaster. The San Francisco weather had turned suddenly hot, and my sweaty guests waited expectantly as I made the first tentative incision into the breast. My heart sank as the grease spurted out and everyone saw the sad fatty little slices. Fortunately, ducks have gotten meatier since then, and after years of fumbling around in the kitchen I’ve finally figured out how to cook one. Duck is often the perfect solution when we aren’t in the mood for red meat like beef or lamb but don’t quite feel like chicken or seafood. Duck is, in fact, easy to cook once you understand a few of its idiosyncracies, and duck à l’orange, clichéd or not, is one of the easiest and best duck dishes. But before we set out to cook duck à l’orange, let’s examine a couple of methods for cooking ducks, à l’orange or otherwise.