For those who enjoy Chinese food then Duck is a frequently enjoyed meat but this is rather limiting the true worthiness that duck has as a meat for celebration. At Christmas time roast duck can be a real centrepiece, on its own or as part of a three and four bird roulade.

On its own, roasted duck, like goose has a rich and distinctive flavour and a very crispy skin. The extracted fat is also great for roasting potatoes. There isn’t a great deal of meat on a duck and therefore unlikely to be leftovers so it needs to be savoured, and savoured it is. To ensure you have enough meat to serve your guests it is perhaps worthwhile to order duck breast fillets individually and roast these to your liking. Some people like their duck breasts pink while may like them fully-cooked to brown. Either way they are bursting with gamey flavour.

It is with fruit (oranges in particular) that duck really excels, a recipe by Mary Berry where she slow-roasts the duck with orange & port sauce really shows how duck is worthy of a place at the Christmas table.

Jamie Oliver agrees with his easy Christmas Roast Duck with crispy potatoes and port gravy.

Our mallard is proving to be very popular as a whole bird and has a slightly stronger flavour than duck. The recipes above would be perfect.

Duck features in our Four Breast Roulade; Turkey, Duck, Goose and Pheasant (comfortably serving 12) and the Three Breast Roulade; Turkey, Duck & Pheasant (comfortably serving 6).

These are great options if you still like to be traditional with turkey but want to introduce new flavours. Both are wrapped in streaky bacon and look amazing when cooked.

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