How to Prepare a Duck Crown
To prepare a duck crown, the first thing we are going to do is remove the legs from the breast. Make a little incision, just above the leg, and below the breast on both sides, and that’s going to free the legs up from the main crown.
Turn the duck over and then follow that line, all the way along, and just tuck it under the leg. At this point you are going to hit a little bone, we’re going to snap that leg back. That’s then going to expose that little ball joint.
Run our knife underneath that little ball joint, and just scrape against the carcass, making sure to take off as much meat as we possibly can. At that point the first leg is removed.
Do exactly the same on the other side, again following that line, underneath the ribs, taking out the little piece of meat called the oyster, until we hit the bone.
With your thumb on top of that bone, snap that leg back, again to just expose that ball joint. Again, run our knife underneath that ball joint, against the carcass, and the second leg is then removed.
Now to create the crown the bottom half of the spine needs to be removed.
With a knife, cut up straight to the spine. With one hand on the duck and the other hand on the bottom half of the spine, snap the spine back.
Where that back has broken, run the knife straight through the joint, and the bottom of the spine is then removed. That part is perfect for stock.
Now the duck should be beginning to look a little bit more like a crown. There is one last thing to remove, which is half of the wing on both sides.
At the little joint halfway up the wing, make a little incision and that should give an indication of where the wing joint is. Once you can see the joint, with our knife, just cut straight through, and that wing will come free.
Exactly the same on the other side, little incision just to see where that joint is, and cut straight through. Again, those wings can go into the stock pile.
And then what we are left with is our one duck crown, ready for roasting.
To Cook the Duck Crown
Preheat the oven to 160C.
Score the duck crown, then season and place into a hot cast-iron heavy based saucepan. Brown the skin for around five minutes rolling the crown occasionally. The skin should be golden brown all over.
Once the skin has browned, add the butter, broccoli, spring onions, diced shallot, rosemary and preserved lemon to the hot pan.
Place the whole pan into a hot oven at 160C for around 15 minutes. If you have a meat thermometer, you can make sure that the core has reached 45C.
Remove the crown from the oven, cover with tin foil and allow to rest for ten minutes, then slice and serve.
