Hello everyone,
This is my first post and I am seeking some assistance...
I'm a bit of an amateur as this is my second Peking Duck of all time, the first one came out absolutely fabulous. The first duck I made was bought frozen from Shaw's and was more or less prepped with the exception of wing-tip removal and general cleaning. With this second duck I decided to pick it up from my local Asian food market, it was also frozen but almost 40% cheaper than the frozen duck at Shaw's. I was a bit surprised when I opened the duck after defrosting to find that it was whole, head, feet, everything except the feathers. I managed to get the non-essential parts removed but I've noticed a lot of quills. I used tweezers to remove the larger ones but on the back of the duck there are still a lot of small ones that are very difficult to pull out. Since they are on the back and very small would it be okay for me not to pluck them all? The breast and legs are cleaned up nicely, those are the main portions we will be serving, but the amount of time to dig the tiny quills from the back would be several hours, which seems like too much work considering the location. I don't recall if the one I bought from Shaw's looked the same, I think seeing the head, feet, etc, made me examine this one more closely so I might be fixating on something that is perfectly normal, in fact I don't know if these little things even technically count as "quills", the larger ones I pulled certainly were but not sure about the small ones on the back.
I can take pictures if needed, just let me know and I can post them.
I am using this recipe if anyone is interested, it's the same one I used for my first duck: Peking Duck - 38023 - Recipezaar
This is my first post and I am seeking some assistance...
I'm a bit of an amateur as this is my second Peking Duck of all time, the first one came out absolutely fabulous. The first duck I made was bought frozen from Shaw's and was more or less prepped with the exception of wing-tip removal and general cleaning. With this second duck I decided to pick it up from my local Asian food market, it was also frozen but almost 40% cheaper than the frozen duck at Shaw's. I was a bit surprised when I opened the duck after defrosting to find that it was whole, head, feet, everything except the feathers. I managed to get the non-essential parts removed but I've noticed a lot of quills. I used tweezers to remove the larger ones but on the back of the duck there are still a lot of small ones that are very difficult to pull out. Since they are on the back and very small would it be okay for me not to pluck them all? The breast and legs are cleaned up nicely, those are the main portions we will be serving, but the amount of time to dig the tiny quills from the back would be several hours, which seems like too much work considering the location. I don't recall if the one I bought from Shaw's looked the same, I think seeing the head, feet, etc, made me examine this one more closely so I might be fixating on something that is perfectly normal, in fact I don't know if these little things even technically count as "quills", the larger ones I pulled certainly were but not sure about the small ones on the back.
I can take pictures if needed, just let me know and I can post them.
I am using this recipe if anyone is interested, it's the same one I used for my first duck: Peking Duck - 38023 - Recipezaar