Are we having duck?

Delicious! A couple of weekends ago mein bruder visited the area and came over for our version of bistecca fiorentine. I don't remember now whether any photos were taken or whether I wrote about that, but we "invested" in a 3 lb, 3 in hunk of T-bone (with the tenderloin part no less) and prepared it a la Mario Batali's grilling recipe. It turned out excellent, warmed to the perfect 120 F interior that is medium rare. Mein bruder only stayed for one night, but we had actually prepared for two, having bought a pair of ducks for the night before the Italian fare. Since he didn't show up, we were left with two ducks in the freezer. So, consulting Batali's grilling book once again, I found a recipe there for "spit-roasted duck" that sounded fairly appetizing and relatively simple. We decided to try it after a day of soaking in the sun on our deck. The only trouble was our lack of rotating spit. However, I knew our BBQ (Weber model 2000LX—I need to record its model number for reference) had these little grooves made in its metal casting to support a spit, but of course, it was an extra accessory that I needed to find.

Saturday I went out in search of a rotisserie attachment to our barbie. I thought the same hardware store from where we bought the grill some 10 (?) years ago might actually have the right thing, but like in the movie Color of Money, when we rolled up to the store, we found an empty hulk of a building. Guess it went out of business. So on to ACE hardware. I found a kind of el-cheapo universal rotisserie ($40 vs. the "right" Weber type that runs about $80) that I thought would fit. The trouble with this thing was that the motor attaches to the shelf, which is really too low for proper operation. As a result the motor was raised halfway out of its mounting bracket. It would pivot precariously upon every rotation. Meanwhile, fixing the duck onto the spit was an adventure in itself. Those little metal prongs that are meant to hold the bird in place didn't tighten very well and my technique for skewering the duck wasn't good in the first place. We ended up really man-handling the bird onto those prongs to get it to stay. I was afraid we'd find the duck had fallen off at some point.

Eventually it turned out ok. One had to be somewhat vigilant because the spit would recoil out of the motor socket and would therefore stop spinning. If the motor had been fixed to the iron casting I suppose this would not have been a problem. But with this cheapo system the "fix" was to walk up to it and squeeze it together to re-insert the spit rod into the motor housing and watch it spin up again. After about 1 1/4 hrs the duck was done. The sauce for it was sort of Asian, based on orange marmalade, containing rosemary, garlic, and balsamic vinegar. Pretty tasty. The burnt parts were a result of the spit not spinning, but tasty nonetheless. We still have one more duck in the freezer. Not sure what to do with it, but I do like the idea of spit roasting: all the fat renders off so that the result is a less greasy duck than what you get out of the oven (at least that was my perception of it). We ate the whole thing with me getting the lion's share, leaving the bones and carcass for the makings of duck stock.