Duck à l'Orange

Recipe:

Ingredients:
1 duckling, salt and pepper, sprig of thyme, 8 oranges, 1 cup hot water, 1/3 cup unsalted butter, 1 tsp sugar, 1 glass port/sherry

Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees
- Rub inside and outside of duckling with salt and pepper
- Place diced pulp and peel of 1 orange and a sprig of thyme into breast and carefully close.
- Place prepared duckling breast down on a rack in a roasting pan. Fill pan with 1 cup of hot water and juice of 2 oranges plus peel.
- After 1/2 of baking, turn duckling over and pour juice of 2 oranges over it.
- Lower heat to 160 degrees and baste duck with drippings every 5 minutes. Bake for 75-90 minutes.
Orange sauce: - Take sauce from dripping pan. Remove grease. Add one glass of port/sherry and bring to a boil.
Garnish: - Melt butter in a pan. Add sugar and stir until caramelised. Dip thinly sliced oranges (2 remaining ones) in this mixture.

- Place duckling on hot platter, pour orange sauce over it and garnish with caramelised orange slices.

Region details:
The earliest French recipes we find with duck and oranges were published in 19th Century. However according to food historians, the combination of citrus fruits and fatty meat is thousands of years old and originates in the Middle East. The acid in the fruit works well with the fat in the meat, giving a strong flavour. Duck à l'Orange is now a well-known dish world-wide.