The scene:
It is a blizzard.
Well, a strong snow storm.
The temperature is dropping rapidly, and the wind is high. We have two local birds, about 7 pounds each, and a gas range. Eddy pulls up his hoodie (my stars, what is it with kids these days? Who wears a hoodie in sub-freezing temperatures) and, tongs in mitten, takes to the porch!
Each duck has in its cavity a potpourri of whole:
allspice, star anise, juniper berry, Szechuan and white, green and black peppercorns.
Beneath the rack are foil packages of soaked hickory chips, and the trick, we have found, is to keep these babies on the move. If you let them sit you have, plain and simple, a bonfire. But, if you turn them frequently, and keep a large box of salt on hand to control grease flare-ups, the resulting bird is fragrant with spices and smoke, buttery tender, and totally moist, as it bastes in its fats constantly.
On this particularly frigid evening we served our birdies with a reduction of loganberry syrup (local and bottled in season) and blackcurrant juice, to which we had added the bags from the ducks cavities, to simmer, before serving.
I recommend removing the skin to serve. It gets rather greasily charred during this process.
Carefully cut away the breast meat and slice it sideways, along with any other bits you can remove from the thighs and legs.
Yes, it's a lot of turning, for a relatively small amount of very rich meat, but it is so very worth it!
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