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.

Charcutepalooza! Challenge accepted.

It is almost time to start 2011. Turns out 2011 will be the Year of Charcuterie. Who knew?

Charcutepalooza to be exact. And I'm in. This is the motivation I have been needing. I hope this is like having a personal charuterie trainer cheering me on to start the next cure.

First up, duck breast prosciutto. I have seen some nice duck at the Asian market on Central. I don't remember what breed though. My original plan, that I have procrastinated over a year on, was to buy 2 ducks. Once broken down, I'd have 2 breasts for duck breast prosciutto, 2 breasts for cooking (probably on a grill), 4 legs and 4 thighs for confit, some fat for the confit, and some bones for a duck stock. And have I done it? No. Haven't even come close. But I've agreed to do this and now there is a deadline.

I'll be traveling for Christmas and then again for New Years so the cure will have to be scheduled around those trips. But this is freakin' awesome. I feel like a kid with charcuterie homework. At least it isn't a diarama in a shoe box. My duck breast prosciutto project is due on the 15th of January. It's on, baby. Please join me (and hopefully a lot of others) in this year long pursuit of cured meat.

Chef's are cool

The Chicago Reader along with Sky Full Of Bacon are doing a series of articles and videos of Chicago chefs. The idea is awesome. And the chefs seem to embrace the idea and make something special.

It starts with on chef getting the "key ingredient." The chefs cooks something with the ingredient then chooses the next key ingredient to get passed onto the next chef. I think what I like about the idea so much is that it gives you a real glimpse into the thought process of a chef. I thought about forwarding the idea to Steve Barnes to use with Capital Region chefs, but since Steve doing anything with the idea would essentially be plagiarism, I didn't.

Interesting articles and videos if you have the time.

Almost a post

I sat down at the computer all ready to write a post that I've been meaning to write but haven't gotten to yet. A little over a month ago, I won some soda over at Albany Eats and I had a tasting with the kids, my wife, her parents and her grandmother. It was fun. Everyone voiced their opinions and I took notes. The girls made sure their comments were written down. Here I sit, ready to tell you all about it. And I have no idea where the piece of paper with the notes is hiding. Dammit.

So, you are stuck with a curling story. I am playing in a Bonspiel (aka curling tournament) this weekend. The group of guys on the team all started curling around the same time. There is a pretty big bonspiel on the East Coast for newer curlers with 5 or less years experience and we played in it as a team about 6 years ago. I think almost 30 teams played in it that year. This bonspiel moves from club to club and that year it was held outside Boston. Road Trip.

For me, bonspiels make me nervous. I guess it is like a runner getting pumped up for a race. The easiest way to get rid of a case of curling nerves is to have a drink. We did. Many. In fact, the Friday night of that tournament probably rivals the drunkest I have ever been. But I digress...Sunday morning at 8 am we had a play down game. The winner of that game went on to one of the finals at 11. Win the finals, you get your name on a trophy plus all the fortune and glory that comes with winning obscure events. The nerves were getting to me. My first shot was so bad, and light, and crappy it didn't even count and ended up getting removed from play. One of the guys on the team recognized the nerves and jumped into action. He bolted to the bar to get a pitcher of beer. The following conversation took place at 8:05 AM in Massachusetts.

My buddy: I need a pitcher of Sam Adams.
Bartender: I can't sell beer before noon on a Sunday. It is a state law.
My buddy (without missing a beat): I need to borrow a pitcher of beer until noon.
Bartender: Okay.

With the team nursing their hangovers with a pitcher of beer, we went on to win our game. And the 11:00 game too. And somewhere out there is a trophy with my name on the side. This team reunites tomorrow afternoon. Maybe the magic can happen again and I'll get my name on another obscure trophy. I'm not getting that drunk though.

Good Curling!

The Pierogie Tradition Continues

I am realizing that I like traditions. Things that can be passed on, and on, and on. But I think more importantly, these are things that should be passed on. I can see how much my wife's aunt enjoys this day and what it has become. Three generations getting together to make pierogie for Christmas.

I just watched a video/slide show my sister-in-law put together. Five years of pictures of essentially the same day. It blows my mind how much a kid can change in a year. When you are with them all the time, you tend to miss things. Looking back, well it kind of choked me up. These are kids that went from playing with dough like it was play-dough to really wanting to get into the cooking process. Every step. Helping each other. Really trying to get it right. And excitedly looking forward to the Christmas Eve party where they will get to eat the fruit of their labor. Just really beautiful to see.