Charcutepalooza Project #10

Duck Confit

For this project, I made duck confit. I've never had it but have been curious about it for awhile. The only problem of making it at home without any prior experience with confit is judging the outcome. I have nothing to compare it with. Plus, this past month has been crazy - school is in full swing, the girls are in a handful outside school activities, open houses, two trips to Buffalo, curling season is starting, the list goes on...And that is why this project just came out of the oven about two and a half hours before the deadline.

It all started with buying a duck yesterday. I got out of a big truck that I just drove back from Buffalo, got in my car and headed to the Asian Market on Central. It was the only place I could think of that would have a thawed duck ready to go. I didn't realize it until I got it out of the package, but the head was still on. Being so used to American headless chickens, the head kind of caught me off guard.

Although that experience with chickens paid off and I was able to break down the duck pretty quickly. There are three main piles on the cutting board. In the upper left corner of the board are the wing tips, feet and neck. Just below them on the left are the wings - each cut into two pieced. The two breast are centered up top. Just below them are the leg/thigh pieces. An the carcass is all the way to the right. The breasts got frozen for another time, the wing pieces and leg/thighs are going into the confit. The wing tips, feet are carcass are going to be made into duck stock as soon as I get to the store for some celery.

Following Melissa Clark's recipe (From the New York Times) I coated the duck meat with salt, pepper, thyme and a bay leaf. Then it went into the fridge for a little under 24 hours.

Earlier tonight, I put the duck in a skillet and started to render the fat. I added a little olive oil so that there was about a quarter inch depth of oil/duck in the pan. This was a misstep and I should have seen it coming. I started the duck in a cold pan without any oil because I was expect a lot of pat to come out of the legs. I should have preheated the pan, then added a little oil, then added the duck. The skin stuck to the pan. Oops. I just carried on and pretended it didn't happen.

At this point, the house smelled really good. The pan got covered with foil and put in a 375 degree oven. A few hours later, I took it out and this is what I had.

Luckily, 4 out of 5 dieticians recommend inhaling a few pieces of duck braised in fat as an after dinner snack. I've already eaten all of the wing pieces. Damn, they are good. The skin is really, really good. This is a technique that is definitely worth exploring. I have a few other duck confit recipes that I will have to try. I'm going to save the leg/thigh pieces but I don't think they are going to be around on Monday. And all done with a hour and 45 minutes to spare...piece of cake.

Charcutepalooza Project #1 - wrap up & look ahead

I've tasted the second breast and it was actually a little different. The scoring had definitely impacted the flavor in a good direction. I would score any future duck breast that I cure. I really want to try one of those ducks from Garden of Spices. I bet that would have a positive impact to the flavor too. The other thing I think I would try is the addition of other flavors. These ideas sound delicious. Maybe more along the lines of a duck pancetta than prosciutto. Either way isn't traditional, but it sounds good.

The new challenge has been issued. I think I will take on bacon, pancetta and cured lemon this month. I am out of bacon and pancetta (tragic, I know) and the lemons sound good. First step is to source a pig belly. I walked around the Troy Farmer's Market and none were to be found. The problem is that making bacon is not difficult and a farmer can increase his profits significantly for a few hours of time. Not a lot of sustainably raised pork bellies to go around. I'll be in Newburgh later this week. Maybe I will try one of the bellies offered at Adam's.

While the challenge doesn't require smoking, I have roasted bacon before and preferred the the hint of smoke. I think I'll have to try both to compare. My oldest daughter will be the judge. The younger daughter likes food. The older daughter LIKES food. I think I'll need to get the shovel out.

Charcutepalooza Project #1 - continued

So after a few days in the makeshift chamber, I thought I'd give the wine cooler another shot. Currently the ambient humidity in the basement is very low and keeping the humidity in the chamber a little low too. The humidity in the wine cooler is controlled 2 ways. First, by having a bowl of water at the bottom to boost the humidity and second, by cracking the door to let out some humidity. Monitoring with the indoor/outdoor sensor I got on the cheap a Lowes, I was able to switch between the two. Here are the breasts in the cooler.

I had planned to try the duck breast for the first time on Friday night, but I was asked to help out at the curling club. So I pulled the smaller breast out tonight. It had a nice smell and nice flavor. The flavor, however, was not something I would compare to prosciutto. In my opinion, the original is better but...comparing something that ages a week to something that ages a year is not exactly a fair comparison. The addition of herbs would be interesting to try in the future. I'm also curious to see how much impact a higher quality duck breast has. I bet it is significant. I am going to let the larger breast hang at least one more day and see how that one tastes. All-in-all, an enjoyable project an I look forward to to cooking with my cured duck meat. Don't know what's next, my guess is bacon or pancetta. We'll find out on Saturday.

Charcutepalooza Project #1 - continued

Last night I went curling. It was a lot of fun even though we lost. We kept fighting back, but then kept letting the game get away from us...we'll get 'em next time. I got home it was about 12:30 and the duck needed to come out of the the salt and get hung up. Friday morning was going to come early.

I pulled the duck breasts out of the salt, washed them and patted them dry with paper towels. This is going to sound funny, but the breasts were noticeably firmer.I weighed them and they had each lost about 25 grams of weight. I sprinkled on some white pepper and wrapped them up in cheesecloth. Then I went to town with my bastardized knot tying. I couldn't help but think that there are pros out there that would get a good laugh at this.

The wine cooler had a not good smell to it when I opened the door. Which sucked because I had cleaned it and it was holding at an ideal temperature and humidity. So I fired up my drop-cloth-humidifier chamber and hung the breasts in there. I'm going to clean out the fridge again and hope to get the breasts in there soon. The basement is very dry right now and I can't get the humidity near the breasts above 60%. I was shooting for 70 to 75%.

Also, Michael Ruhlman mentioned this project on his blog. Turns out there are 54 like minded crazies at the beginning of the project. I'm proud to be counted as one of them. I expect more to join as the word gets out. You can find the start of this project here and here. The duck project started here.

 

Charcutepalooza Project #1

Duck Breast Prosciutto:

So much for the original plan. The Co-Op only had frozen duck and they were clearly duck that was fresh last week. They were also very lightly wrapped and ice crystals had formed. I was tempted to buy one anyway, but they just looked to have lost too much quality. The meat manager wasn't there so I left her a voice mail asking when the next fresh ducks would arrive. She promptly returned my call and gave me the bad news. The Christmas ducks were the last round of fresh duck until June. Makes sense - snow covered ground, migration, blah, blah, blah. Time to formulate a new plan.

The last time I was at the Asian Market on Central, the ducks look a little old. Plus they were never as gorgeous as the ones at the Co-Op last week. The Troy Farmers Market was out since it was going to be too late for me to make a January 15th deadline. I ended up with frozen breasts from Roma in Latham. I scored one breast and not the other to see if it made a difference. Then I weighed the two breasts and jotted down the pre-cure weight on a piece of paper that I stole from one of my daughters (hope you like it, Jane!) and put them in the salt. They will get weighed again and hung up to dry later tonight.

Putting Together A Duck Plan

I believe I have found the duck of my dreams at the Honest Weight Coop. Not sure exactly what kind of duck it is. It was just labeled "Duck." But it is fresh, local and organic. The Coop had a handful of ducks from Garden Of Spices Poultry in Greenwich. They have very favorable write ups on Serious Eats. Apparently, most of their ducks go to Chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill at Stone Barns. From what I have read about him, I can say with certainty that his standards are higher than mine. If these ducks are good enough for Chef Barber...I think I'll be happy with them too.

We will be traveling for New Years to a town outside of Baltimore to visit friends. Since I won't be around to babysit the duck breast while they cure, I am going to start my project on January 3rd. Cure the breasts for about 24 to 36 hours and then hang them in a wine cooler. I'm not sure what the humidity will be in there. The duck meat will be shedding water, but that water will be trapped in the wine fridge. I'll either need to add some humidity, or crack the door and let some moisture out. Like I said, babysit.

Buying a whole duck means I'll also have 2 wings, 2 drumsticks, and 2 thighs. The wings will either get cooked up for me to eat or go into a stock with the rest of the bones. The legs and thighs are probably going to get a pseudo confit treatment once described in a New York Times food article with this recipe. If there is a ton of fat for me to render, I might try a more traditional confit like the recipe in the Charcuterie book.