As I’ve mentioned before, our boys adore duck meat, so we cook it quite often.
Instead of buying a whole duck these days, I purchase free range Thirlmere duck marylands (thigh and drumstick portion) from Haverick Meats…
Each packet contains four or five pieces. I rub these with a little salt and pepper, then place them in our Emile Henry brasier and roast them for about an hour and a half, until the skin is crispy, the meat is cooked, and the fat has rendered off.
The fat and meat stock are poured into a bowl, allowed to set in the fridge, and then stashed in the freezer for later use. I strip all the meat from the bones and use it in a ragu or curry – the duck is so rich that there is always ample for at least a couple of dinners.
Last week, instead of discarding the skin and bones as I normally would, I decided to boil them up for stock. I didn’t actually think I’d get a lot more out of them, but I figured it was worth a try. I added a litre of water to the brasier, along with half a carrot, some celery, an onion and a couple of bay leaves. The pot was left simmering on the stove for a couple of hours, until it had reduced down to about a cup and a half of liquid…
After resting in the fridge overnight, the liquid set to a solid, incredibly flavoursome, gelatinous stock. I de-fatted it, then popped it into a container in the freezer. It will make a wonderful addition to a paella or pasta sauce. Pete suggested we could cut it into little cubes and make fancy canapés…
I’m really happy with this – the jellied stock is so rich that just a little bit will make a difference to future dishes. It’s astonishing how much flavour was left in bones and skin that would normally have been discarded!
Lesson learnt – always look twice at something before throwing it away!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I love Duck, I don’t often have it but I can imagine how tasty and rich the stock is
Claire, it’s really rich – that small amount was enough to flavour a whole pan of paella! :)
The next time I roast a duck, I will definitely save the bones. Waste now want not is right!
Thanks Haley! :)
We do this with the leftovers in winter, making a stock pot to leave on the stove for use in soups :) your duck ‘jelly’ looks very good!
Tandy, it’s a great idea, and one we should definitely do more often. I love the idea of having a stock pot full of leftovers!
Really good stuff, Celia. I wish everyone made stock out of all of their left-over meat/bones!
Thanks Nick! I thought of you when I wrote this post, and was hoping you’d like it! :)
Such a clever idea… how long does that jellied stock keep? And have you made beef or veal stock like this, Celia?
Lizzy, I stashed the stock in the freezer so it keeps for ages, although I did read somewhere that stocks in the fridge should only be kept for a couple of days or so. Our beef stock is made with bones in the pressure cooker, and it always jellies up as well!
your duck stock is culinary treasure..
i do the same with chicken skin and bones but i roast it first with the usual aromatics and then boil it..sometimes i strain the bones etc and add more water and boil it again to get a secondary stock which is often less intense in flavour but still very useful..
Jane, I never thought to try it with chicken bones, but I certainly will if I can get any that haven’t been chewed on.. ;-) Thanks for the tip!
Since “the jellied stock is so rich that just a little bit will make a difference to future dishes” perhaps you may want to freeze using ice cubes tray, once frozen, pop out cubes and place them in freezer bag/container, thus giving you the flexibility to use the quantity you need.
Norma, thanks for the great tip, but I just don’t seem to have luck with freezing things in ice cube trays! I know lots of people manage it well, but I always end up with ice encrusted cubes stuck together in the freezer! Happens with everything from lemon juice to duck fat! :)
Celia, if you pop the cubes out of the ice cube tray after content is solidly frozen that should eliminate the problem.
You have such great ideas Celia. Your stock looks like it is full of intense flavour. Wonderful how you were able to get something so fabulous out of what most of us would just discard. We love duck meat around here too so I must see if I can do the same! xx
Charlie, I actually end up with double stock from this – the liquid is poured off as the duck is roasting, and it separates into fat and stock. Then this second boiling gave us another batch of stock! Double bonus! :)
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An excellent Frugal Friday tip, thanks Celia. It is remarkable how much a few bones will give up – even when we think they’ve already given their all.
Amanda, thank you – that was what excited me enough to blog about it – I really couldn’t believe there was more flavour to be had from those bones and scraps! :)
So clever Celia. You’ve made your own version of Campbell’s stock pods!
Claire, I’ve never seen a stock pod! I’ve only ever seen the stuff in the plastic boxes! :) Hope it’s all going well leading up to the big day! x
That’s wonderful! And I bet each little piece of precious jelly is worth its weight in gold taste wise :)
Lorraine, it was quite delicious, and Pete made the best paella ever with it!
That’s brilliant! I hate to waste anything in the kitchen, but who’d have thought you’d get THAT much milage out of the bones and skin??
SK, I know! I was so excited about that too! :)
Lovely lovely lovely! sometimes wonder if we were separated at birth? Scandinavians of my mother’s generation (not sure about now) would chop up stock jelly and it would feature as one of the components on an open rye sandwich, often with fried onions and a little mustardy mayonnaise and cold rare beef.
Jo, that’s good to know, thank you! I’ll try that next time. This batch went into a duck paella in the end.. :)
We all love the idea of using every bit of goodness from our meat cuts!
It feels so right- and tastes so good!
And you influence so many people in this venue- you are a great mentor for new and experienced cooks, Celia.
Thank you so much for posting!
Heidi, that is very sweet of you, thank you! Duck feels like such an extravagant meat, even though we eat it all the time, and I don’t want to waste any of its goodness! :)
Oh boy, oh boy that looks amazing. Must be good in so many things.
Greg, it really was delicious! I wish there had been enough for soup, but it wasn’t quite..
This was an awesome idea! I’m in Shanghai, and street-food “Peking duck” is a popular item near my home. I took home a duck, boned it, and prepared the stock using just the bones, cartiledge, and what I had on hand (garlic/onion puree, garlic scape flower buds, carrot, bay leaves). It tastes great and gelled up perfectly, so I can see doing this again in the future!
Hooray! Thanks for letting me know, I’m so glad it worked for you! What a great thing to do with Peking duck bones – I’m sure they would have had lots of flavour!
I’ve yet to even try making duck.. but when I do I’ll be sure to come here for your ideas! This is such a great resource!
Smidge, thank you! Duck is such a rich meat, it goes a long way in our house, and I’m feeding two teenage wolves, so that’s really saying something.. ;-)
Dear Celia,
This is such a beautiful recipe and I love it because it utilizes everything. I would normally get a whole roast duck from a chinese butcher, then debone and fillet it myself and the entire carcass makes a beautiful soup to be eaten with vermicelli and the duck meat.
Chopinand, I must do that next time – I always get them to chop my roast duck for me, but if I kept it whole, I could do a whole stack of things with the carcass – thanks for the suggestion!
Love duck and duck fat…thanks for this recipe…
You can never get enough duck! It should be a house saying here.. :D