a picture of a white plate with a whole roast duck with a bowl of cherry sauce and a silver carving knife and fork

Roast Duck with Cherry Sauce

2 hours 50 minutes - 3 hours 20 minutes

Serves 4. Scroll down to Ask Lindsey to see questions she has answered on this recipe

This recipe is from Delia's Happy Christmas.

After 40 years of recipe writing about other more elegant ways of serving duck I have now returned to this, the original recipe.

If you think halfway to Chinese this is what it's like, moist flesh, lots of lovely very crispy bits and I still can't believe it's so simple.

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Other sizes of duck

Asked by: Anne Story

The Roast Duck with Sour Cherry Sauce in the Winter Collection is a great recipe but I sometimes have difficulty getting a duck of a weight close to the 2.7kg recommended. Often local supermarket ducks are considerably smaller and those from local farms are much larger. The last one I purchased was 3.4 kg and that was one of the smallest available! I wasn't sure how much additional time to add for such a large duck. So... please could you advise what range of weight of duck would still cook well in the 2.5 hr cooking time? and, what time for a smaller bird? what time for a really large bird?

Answered by Lindsey: Hello, We have a few recipes that cover other sizes of duck. This one is for a 2.25 – 2.27K duck and says allow another 30 minutes a 2.7K duck. 20 minutes at 220C then 2 ½ hours at 180… This one (now our most used method) is for a 2k duck and is cooked for 2 hours at 230C … If I had a 3.4K duck I would do 2 ¾ hours at 230C (conventional setting). BUT I haven’t tested this!! Best wishes Lindsey

Method

Prepare the duck by wiping it as dry as possible with kitchen paper.

Then, using a small skewer, prick the fatty bits of the skin, particularly between the legs and the breast. Now either place it on the roasting rack in the tin or make a rack yourself by crumpling the kitchen foil and placing it in the bottom of the roasting tin. Season with salt flakes and freshly milled black pepper, using quite a lot of salt, as this encourages crunchiness.

Now place the tin on a highish shelf of the pre-heated oven.

After 20 minutes turn the heat down to gas mark 4. 180ºC / 350ºF, then basically that’s all you have to do is leave it alone for 2½ hours (or 30 minutes longer for a 2.7 kg bird). During the cooking time, using an oven glove to protect your hands, remove the tin from the oven and drain the fat from the corner of the tin – do this about 3 times (the fat is brilliant for roast potatoes, so don't throw it away).

To make the sauce simply combine the jam and wine and bring it up to a simmer then simmer for about 10 minutes to thicken it slightly.

When the cooking time is up the duck skin should sound crisp when it is tapped with a knife, if it's not pop it back in the oven for a bit longer, then when it's cooked allow the duck to rest for 5 minutes or so, then divide it into portions: all you need to do is cut the bird in half lengthways (i.e. along the length of the breast then either side of the backbone) with a sharp knife, then cut the halves into quarters leaving any escaped pieces of bone behind. (You may need some help with some kitchen scissors here.)

Serve with the sauce poured around so as not to lose the crispness of the skin and garnish with watercress.