Wow! Those are a lo5 of questions for a bird you're already cooking! Or are you just thinking through the steps? I love duck, too, but will not eat it undercooked. I won't eat steak undercooked, either, however, so I'm not, perhaps, the best one to ask about that. I've had very good duck breast cooked so well it was white in a restaurant. That was a misunderstanding, but it tasted great, still. Generally, I like it more around med-well, where the flesh is still red-brown, but it cooked through without any rare spots. That's druthers more than cooties, for me.

Restaurants have taken to cooking all meats at med-rare because they can always take it back and cook it more, but if they're over, which can happen especially if they have to hold it while waiting for something else for the table, they have to start again, and that ruins the dinner for the customers as well as wasting food. I find this practice obnoxious but kitchen help is notoriously underpaid, and without an underclass desperate for a decent job at any wage, where people with skill and drive and worth well beyond their stations produce excellent work, we get what we can from those who can't do better.

I've only cooked duck breast (pan fried in its own fat) and legs (braised), so can't help with the Asian versions.

I think it was John Liu who strung the duck up in his garage and used a heat gun or something. Try searching on his name.

With all the fat under the skin....that duck should be crisp as puff pastry. just allow the air to get to it.
My son recently put 2 ducks on a spit on his gas grill to serve to company....I wasn't at the party but everyone raved. He cut the fatty globs from the cavity openings and rendered the fat and cooked potatoes in it to serve with the birds.
Forget what he sauced it with....but the skin was crackling crisp he said.

Thanks, Plllog and Lindac.

I apologize for that overly long unfocused post. I was cooking (or had plans to cook) the duck and parts is several directions.

I removed the duck breast with skin and fat on. These were the last thingsI prepared. I scored the skin and pa fried them in a hot pan, skin side down in a bit of garlic-thyme-sale gris favored duck fat. I let the skin get very crisp, the turned the breast halves. I made a sweet-tart cherry sauce for the and put some of the filtered thyme-salt-garlic fat on roasted potato. They were heavenly. I cooked them medium-med rare.

The chopped carcass including wings, thighs and legs I oven roasted after marinating dry in garlic, gray salt and thyme for 48 hours. I washed marinade off, patted dry and put in a slow oven in a Le Creuset Dutch oven, no cover because I wanted the skin to crisp. Hours later, fragrant, but skin did not crisp. Meat seemed salty and tough. I did get about 1.5 Cups of delicious fat which I filtered and set aside.

I made stock from the bones. I couldn’t get the skin to crisp. The stock is heavenly. Oh, and the filtered duck broth gelatin (solid when cold) was fantastic. I ate a few spoonfuls, and included the remainder in the broth-stock pot.

It was my first duck cooking experiment and I read too much, was exhausted and tried to go in too many directions at once, and took too much time. The many good cooks here would have tossed me and the duck out of their kitchens, I’m sure. This weekend I’ll visit my duck loving friend and maybe get more thoughts. I’ll take the frozen liver and some fat with me.

I bought a few “spare” ducks (freezer), so one of these days I will try the recommended Inna Gartner recipe, and also a Peking Duck recipe — air compressor or sports ball pump technique to separate the skin from the fat.

I wish I could give you a taste of those duck breasts with crisp skin — so delicious. Oh, and the flavor of the duck fat reminded me so much of the batches of roasted prime woodland mushrooms I used to make — chanterelles, optimum boletes, and select russulas.

Now I’m off to snack on leftover duck and to make Char Siu.

Have a good weekend, everyone.

edit - typos

Note: I cannot get this to publish to the CF; I am trying again. ??? Anyone see this?

This shows now too. :)