How to move a cooking duck from one kitchen to another?

I'm cooking a duck on Friday, and the recipe that I love requires four hours to cook, so I'll start the duck at my house, and then want to move it after 3 hours of cooking 1 to where the dinner will be, and then cook it for the remaining hour or so there. I have two roasting pans, one with a lid, and figured I'd move the duck over into the unused roasting pan. The duck will be out of the oven about 45 minutes. Alternatively, I could finish the duck in advance and warm it up--but not sure if that's the right way to go either. Thanks in advance!

margaret.cooter@gmail.com
  • 2115 views
  • 3 Comments

3 Comments

[email protected] November 26, 2019
Thank you both so much--great suggestions all around. And I'm planning on using that duck fat for roasting potatoes as part of the meal. I will fully cook the duck first--and consider which option makes sense based on timing. Thanks again!
 
Nancy November 25, 2019
Maurine's suggestion is good
Another idea: if you have a cooler or insulated bag, maybe use that to transport the duck.
Cook it thoroughly, put in fridge, chill, wrap in foil or plastic bag, put in cooler or insulated bag for the drive to the second location.
This allows many things, among them
1) you can pour off the drippings from the first roaster into a container, put it overnight in fridge, to allow duck fat (precious for future fried potatoes) to rise to the top.
2) better food safety in case of delay en route... if the traffic or other road trouble delay you close to the 2 hr safety margin.
3) if the duck starts out cool, and is in insulated environment, less chance for whole cooked bird's temperature to rise to danger zone when bacteria thrive.
On arrival, put duck in clean second roaster, which you've brought with you, for warming up.
4) duck is not bumping around, as it were, in the clean roaster with a lot of air around it.
 
Maurine H. November 25, 2019
I would definitely recommend the second route (finishing the duck and then warming it up), keeping in mind that the duck should not be out for more than two hours. If you're worried about the duck becoming dry, Ina Garten's method for carving turkey, then reheating it with gravy should come in handy! (More on that here: https://food52.com/blog/11742-ina-garten-s-make-ahead-thanksgiving-advice)
 
Recommended by Food52