The Alcoholian

Posted by johngl

“What is sauce for the goose may be sauce for the gander but is not necessarily sauce for the chicken, the duck, the turkey or the guinea hen,” said Alice B. Toklas, author of a 1950′s cookbook that popularized a recipe for cannabis brownies.

While I haven’t executed that recipe (or its variants) in over three decades, I have recently explored many variants of roast duck, one of which is pictured below:

Duck breast atop a hash-brown potato pancake. A little crispy duck bacon, a segment of Cara Cara Orange, and a rich sauce rounds out the presentation

Now, some folks might say that I am being absolutely wasteful by roasting a duck breast and to them I say…

Nothing (but it got you here, didn’t it?)

Now that you are here, please prepare for a rather lengthy post. One must pay proper respect to the noble duck.

Our de-feathered friend hailed from Canada and (apparently) spoke with a French accent (since it was a self-described Canard). It was slathered in maple syrup and roasted at 300 degrees for several hours to render out a goodly portion of its fat. Cooled, then halved, our formerly fatty flat-billed fowl looked like this:

It was nice of it to fit in the pan so nicely (although I did have to chop the end of its legs off).

Now, it is ready for a swim in 200 degree lard. What?

Pop this baby (well, pop isn’t really what you should do)…carefully place this (uncovered) into the center shelf of an oven preheated to 200 degrees. Leave it there for two hours. Then turn the oven off and leave the duck alone for another hour. DO NOT open the oven.

It comes out looking like this:

Using a small ladle, dip out the lard and reserve it in another container. You will want to save this stuff. Also, don’t be surprised if you have more lard than you started with. There was still a LOT of fat in that duck before you poached the little quacker in fat. The whole idea here is to render out the fat without drying out the flesh.

Now, to answer the What?: Roasting in the oven, this guy had some really hot, dry air circulating around it for several hours. But ducks are really, really fatty (the fat acts as an insulator to help keep them warm in their cold Canadian climes). You could eat the duck right out of the oven, but it still might be a bit greasy for a lot of folks. One could also leave it in the oven a bit longer, but then you run the risk of drying it out and making the flesh stringy.

I know it is counter-intuitive to bathe it in hot fat to make it less greasy, but the French knew what they were doing. This is essentially what makes “confit” what it is. It was also a great way to preserve the duck in the larder.

So, when the duck is cool enough to handle with your bare hands, you should be able to give the wing and leg bones a light twist, then a tug and they will come out clean, like this:

You will know you have done it all correctly when you can peel back the skin in one sheet:

You might note that the beast is now in its component parts…the legs and thighs are near the top, the breast sections near the center and the skin at the bottom.

Amazingly enough, there is still a lot of fat in and attached to the skin. Therefore, you want to crisp it up on medium heat:

If you have a bacon press, use it to keep it flat:

It is amazing how much more fat renders out of the skin. Just pour it in with the stuff you ladled out earlier. You will know you have it right when you can stand up the skin sections against each other like a tent:

Oh, what crispy yummy goodness that is <sigh>.

You (hopefully) have some goodies stuck to the pan:

You do not want to waste this fond.

Instead, you should add chopped onion, diced carrots, and about a quarter teaspoon of celery seed and fry those up for a few minutes:

A little black pepper here doesn’t hurt.

Add a couple of cups of water and the bones you pulled out of the duck, and you have the beginnings of a great reduction:

Put a lid on the pan, bring it up to a boil, reduce the heat, and allow it to simmer for an hour or two on very low heat.

Once this is done, strain it:

Note the line of duck fat on the surface of the stock. Also, that container on the left has the flesh from the legs and thighs in lard. To the right, the crispy potato “hash browns” with which the breast shall be served.

I use a turkey baster to slurp up the fluid under the fat layer and transfer it to a pan for additional reduction:

At the top you might notice the pan containing the lard and leg/thigh meat mixture that is also reheating.

Reduce the stock to about half of its volume and add whatever seasonings you like. A little salt, a little pepper and a bit of roux made with rendered duck fat (to thicken) and you wind up with a velvety smooth sauce to serve with the breast.

As for the leg meat, you might consider serving it in some tiny potato boats that are flash fried:

Add some shredded duck confit, a smattering of that sauce, a small piece of duck bacon and you wind up with a cute little appetizer:

While this may seem like a very long process, it can be spread out over many days making the final preparation a simple matter of assembly. Your guests (or your significant other) will greatly appreciate your efforts.

The best things in life should be shared!

This entry was posted on Friday, December 28th, 2007 at 9:25 am and is filed under Air, Meat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.