Duck, Duck, Duck…
It occurred to me, as I looked over the last month of Charcutepalooza challenges, that I had the opportunity for some extra credit, to sort of prove the point of the whole experience you might say. I knew I had to prepare for the grand finale, the December challenge, which for me was going to be to prepare that mixed bag of meats and beans, a cassoulet. But I also had, hanging out there, the challenge from the very beginning of the year, the one most of us missed but still had to be done- the duck proscuitto. So, I needed duck breasts for the proscuitto, and I needed legs and thighs to confit for the cassoulet, plus some fat to do the confit. And I know it’s cheaper to cut the fowl into parts than to buy them already apart. And, so, off to the nearest Asian market to buy three beauties.
It helped hugely to have just recently boned and skinned a chicken just a few months before. The challenge for me here was to use as much of the bird as I could. So I cut;
and I simmered;
I rendered (cover fat and skin with water and simmer until the water has evaporated and you are left with this luscious clear fat);
and confited;
and four breasts became a Saturday night dinner
with a garlic and green olive sauce,
and two, using a recipe from the Charcuterie cook book, were covered with salt and then hung to dry. After a suitable amount of time, they were cut down from the garage refrigerator
and served as an appetizer. The duck meat itself was rich and flavorful, though a bit salty, but I kept going back to the recipe to be certain I had not made a mistake in leaving the skin on the breast. The universal comments concluded that it was tough, chewy, and way too fatty to enjoy eating without cutting the skin off. Which we did. We did, however, end up with a good supply of duck stock and duck fat, two things I know we will happily use!