If you are experimenting with duckling, you don’t have to limit yourself to duck a l’orange, a dish that has been around since Escoffier.
Sour cherries, raspberries, mangos, pears, avocados, figs: They all work well.
Duck also combines nicely with Asian, Caribbean and Italian flavors. Try it with Chinese five spice powder, cilantro, lemon grass, ginger root, soy sauce or teriyaki sauce.
Jerk spices from the Caribbean make a tasty complement to the rich flavor of duck, says Scott Swaidner, corporate chef for Maple Leaf Farms.
Duck also speaks Italian when dressed with oregano, basil or rosemary. “Duckling is almost a cousin to garlic,” Swaidner says.
When it comes to gauging servings per person, you’ll need 5 1/2 ounces of uncooked, skin-on, boneless duckling breast or 4 1/2 ounces of skinless, boneless duckling breast. Two to four people can be served from a 5- to 5 1/2-pound duckling roasted whole. Because the legs take longer to cook than the breasts, in some restaurants you will receive the leg prepared one way, surrounded by slices of the breast prepared another.
