I just decided to do a dinner party for my husband. His favorite meal is roasted whole duck (not duck breast), a green peppercorn sauce, wild rice and creamed spinach. I want to be able to enjoy cocktails with guests. I want to make the entire meal earlier in the afternoon and reheat it. I would like to quarter the duck and reheat the pieces. I think about 10 min in the oven covered, 5 min. uncovered for the duck and low heat on the stove for the rice with a little extra water or the microwave. The creamed spinach on the stove top as well with low heat? Do you think all of this will be successful or a disaster to try to reheat all of this? Or do you have any better suggestions for reheating?
Dinner party
- Thread starter janetach
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CharlieD
Chef Extraordinaire
It should not be a problem. The only question is how much food you have. Depending on that is how dificult it will be to heat it up.
CharlieD
Chef Extraordinaire
Oh, that should be easy. Good luck.
ChefJune
Master Chef
Julia Child recommended separating the legs from the breast before roasting a duck. That's because the legs take so much longer than the breast, that often, done as one, the breast will be overcooked and ddry before the legs are finished.
I know her technique is explained in "the Way to Cook." You might want to look that up. It comes out excellent.
I know her technique is explained in "the Way to Cook." You might want to look that up. It comes out excellent.
Andy M.
Certified Pretend Chef
I trust you are planning on cooking more than one duck.
What I would be concerned about is the duck heating all the way through again without drying it out... especially in the microwave, which is notorious for uneven heating.
The rice probably won't be a problem, nor the spinach.
The sauce - I'm assuming a classic green peppercorn sauce that is cream-based. Definitely don't microwave that, the sauce will break. And reheating can be difficult because it can still break when reheated on the stovetop... getting it to emulsify again can be problematic. Be careful about that. Bring it back up to temp low and slow and whisk like crazy.
What I would do (personally), is to do all the sides ahead of time and have cold hors d'oeuvres with the cocktails if you are having them (I'm assuming you are not having a sit-down appetizer, which would probably overly-complicate). I would have the ducks roasting and time them so that mid-cocktail hour, they come out to rest. You can start reheating the other foods when you pull the ducks to rest and complete your sauce then.
Good luck! (I agree that for that many, depending on the size, you'll probably want at least 3 ducks.)
The rice probably won't be a problem, nor the spinach.
The sauce - I'm assuming a classic green peppercorn sauce that is cream-based. Definitely don't microwave that, the sauce will break. And reheating can be difficult because it can still break when reheated on the stovetop... getting it to emulsify again can be problematic. Be careful about that. Bring it back up to temp low and slow and whisk like crazy.
What I would do (personally), is to do all the sides ahead of time and have cold hors d'oeuvres with the cocktails if you are having them (I'm assuming you are not having a sit-down appetizer, which would probably overly-complicate). I would have the ducks roasting and time them so that mid-cocktail hour, they come out to rest. You can start reheating the other foods when you pull the ducks to rest and complete your sauce then.
Good luck! (I agree that for that many, depending on the size, you'll probably want at least 3 ducks.)
