Sunday's Duck Disaster

Hubby got one of those Ron Popeil rotisseries for Christmas, and has been trying it out. Sunday's offering was a duck, and I don't understand what went wrong.

He bought a 5 lb. frozen Culver duck from the local Harris-Teeter, which is the closest thing we have in our town to an upscale grocery store. He thawed it in the refrigerator, and prepared it by injecting it with some of that liquid pre-mixed cajun seasoning. Then he rubbed the outside of it with his own mixture of dried seasonings, put it in the rotisserie, Set It and Forgot It, using the recommended time for cooking duck in the manual. Then he called my mom, and invited her to come have lunch with us after church.

He baked sweet potatoes, sauteed some mixed veggies in butter and garlic, made coleslaw, and I made deviled eggs. When mom got here, we settled down to what we hoped would be a tasty lunch. The sides were delicious, but the duck was awful. It was very moist (from the injection), but the texture was like pliable rubber, and the taste was indescribably bad. The dogs and cats had a feast.

Later, my mom said she had talked to my nephew, who is a good cook, and he told her that duck should be roasted for a very long time at a low temperature. Is that what we did wrong? Was the rotisserie a mistake? What should we do if we fix it again?

I can't speak to the duck issue directly; However, I've owned a Showtime since my kids gave it to me for Christmas 2001, and I've had nothing but great results with it. I've done chicken, beef, shrimp, sausages/dogs, and veggies and it always produces a moist tasty meal. My instinct tells me that perhaps your duck may not have been first quality.
I'd suggest picking up a Purdue oven stuffer and cooking that. Try putting a halved lemon in the bird, sprinkle it with salt and lemon pepper, maybe a little parsley for color. Follow the timing instructions that came with the Showtime and you should do fine.

Just a shot, but most recipes for duck that I've seen or used have you pierce the skin all over with a fork prior to cooking so that the meat doesn't boil in it's own grease (or something to that effect).

I recall most older recipes, and one I used once and liked using a long slow roast, but most I see these days use high heat or some mix of high and 350-375 and cook pretty quickly.

I don't have one of those gadgets but a couple of my friends do; they have made wonderful meals in theirs.
The only way I have ever been successful in cooking a duck is this: That it (unless you've been lucky enough to find a fresh one.) Cut it in half, stick it all over with a fork, put it in a roasting pan with about an inch of water. Cover that with foil, steam it at 350 degrees for about an hour, or until it's tender. Pour the water off, then bake it until it's brown. This gets rid of all the grease. I put an orange sauce on it about 15 minutes before it's browned. And I agree, it's hard to get a good quality duck. Lord knows how long they've been frozen when you get them at the supermarket.

IMHO duck needs to be cooked for a short period at high heat. We raise ducks and only cook them low and slow when they are very old.

My pet roast duck comes from our host's book 'Americian Gourmet'. It calls for 2 hours 15 minutes @ 375F and specifies "do not pierce the skin!".
On the other hand, just down Rt27 from here is the Belgrade Inn, which has specialized in slow roasted duck for more years than I've lived in Maine. Quite good.
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(who had a near moose encounter on the drive home last night)