I decided to make a duck this year as well as the turkey. I’d made this recipe a couple times and holy cow it’s good, so I thought I’d make it for Jamie’s mom, who had never had duck.

The thing about cooking a duck is that if you do it right you’ve got a lot of duck fat left over. Duck fat is deliciousness defined, so I put a little into the potatoes and a lot into the gravy. Result: a dinner everybody raved over – it was my best ever.

So from now on whenever I make a big elaborate dinner, I’m always going to make a duck so I’ll have the fat available to delicify all the other dishes.