Well, eventually it turned out that I could. But not in the Chinese style, though maybe I'll learn that someday (my son's partner's father is a great Chinese cook--and yes, he is Chinese himself, not just the food!). The new Joy of Cooking and *blush* the Martha Stewart Cookbook make this kind of thing fairly easy. What one very good duck cook told me is that it's really important to thaw frozen ducks (the only kind I can get here, except when my hunter brother-in-law gets lucky) very slowly in the fridge over several days, not to speed-thaw in warm water, or worse, microwave. But I've had some disasters! Raw duck! Dried out duck! Duck three hours late AND dried out!