Christmas duck with apples and oranges

Ingredients:

• 1.5 kg duck
• 4 average-sized apples
• 3 oranges
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp marjoram
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1 glass dry white wine
• salt and pepper

Preparation

In order to prepare a delicious and aromatic roast, you obviously need a duck... If you choose an already “prepared” portion available in meat stores, the duck will be ready to use in the recipe. However, if you reach for meat from your own farm or from a friendly farmer, the duck needs to be properly prepare first: cleaned and dried. In the next step, sprinkle the meat with salt and pepper, both on the inside and on the outside. Next, leave the duck for 3 hours in a refrigerator. During that time, wash the oranges and apples. Peel the oranges (removing also the albedo) and make fillets out of their pieces (to obtain the flesh only) – do this over a plate so as not to waste any of the orange juice. Peel half of the apples, removed the seed cavities and slice each of them into eight parts. Sprinkle generously half of the oranges and all the apples peeled with marjoram and thyme. Remove the duck from the refrigerator and stuff it with fruit. Tie the opening so that the stuffing does not leave the inside of the duck during roasting. Perforate the top of the duck densely using a fork and then sprinkle it with thyme and marjoram. Arrange the duck inside the roasting tray or in a Roman pot – make sure that at least 30 minutes elapse between removing the duck from the refrigerator and putting it into the oven – otherwise the thermal shock will make the meat dry. Pour molten butter over the duck, cover it and roast it for half an hour in a temperature of 180°C – best with convection. After that time, turn the duck over, pour butter over it again and roast it for 1 hour, pouring wine over the meat once in a while. Cut the other half of the apples, each into eight pieces, removing the seed cavities, and put them onto the heated pan. Once the apples brown, add the second half of oranges and the juice obtained after peeling them. Heat everything up. Once the duck stops roasting, remove the container cover, add fruit from the pan to the meat and roast the duck for additional 30 minutes until its skin becomes deliciously browned. The duck tastes perfectly both warm and cold!