Electric Rotisserie

Want roast duck? Stick to the oven-roasting method. Photo courtesy Maple Leaf Farms.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ERIC DANTIS is a professional chef in residence at THE NIBBLE’s test kitchen.

April 2010

Appliance Review / Kitchenwares / Appliances

Vertical Rotisserie

Page 3: Using An Electric Rotisserie For Duck & Other Fatty Meats

This is Page 3 of a four-page review: How does duck work in an electric rotisserie? Not great—duck’s connective tissue needs slow oven roasting. But the electric rotisserie’s oven door did a great job of containing the aroma of rendering duck fat! Click on the black links below to visit the other pages.

Duck Trials

We love duck, so we tried roasting a whole duck in the Cuisinart Vertical Rotisserie. Before the initial test, we wondered:

How much fat would be rendered?
If the duck rendered too much fat, would we have to stop to empty the drip pan?
Would the breast still be moist by the time the legs were finished?

After one test, we concluded that you should not roast fatty meats, such as a duck, goose, slab of bacon or pork belly, in the rotisserie.

Our duck skin was rubbery and fatty. The breast was slightly overdone and the legs were very tough because its connective tissue did not have enough time to break down.
For a better way to cook duck, use the stove or the oven and while you’re at it, you could try this recipe.

We did inadvertently find something very interesting that applies to any meat cooked in the Cuisinart Vertical Rotisserie:

The “oven door” of the rotisserie did an excellent job at containing the aroma of the rendering duck fat. If you’ve roasted a duck, you know how penetrating that aroma is, and how far the aroma expands if you have an kitchen without doors that seal tight. We then realized that the rotisserie had been containing the aroma of the chicken as well. While some people might miss that garlicky scent in the kitchen, we find this “aroma containment” a delightful surprise.

Continue To Page 4: Avoiding Potential Rotisserie Pitfalls

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