Duck 5 Ways

http://www.theperennialplate.com/

A friend sent me this link to a quick, but extremely well done, video on how to prepare a duck in five different ways. Click on that link; it is really good! I've made some of this myself (you can read about the ways I used my smoked duck leftovers here), but I'd really like to try some of the other techniques shown.

Also, take a look at The Perennial Plate website. Fantastic as well!


During the holiday season, I will be doing quite a bit of traveling. I am also going to slow down and spend time with my family. I'll be posting a few things here and there. They will likely be interesting or fun photos or easy to watch videos, but I will not be writing in-depth or time-consuming research articles for a few weeks. So relax and enjoy the holidays. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Book Review: Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds

 

Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds

I don't know what is the exact reason, maybe it is my love of animals, my love of agriculture, my interest in science, or just how I am, but I love animal guide books.  And a guide book on animals that can be used on a homestead?  I am captivated!

Carol Ekarius is yet another of my favorite agricultural authors.  She has written about a half-dozen books and quite a bit more articles that are featured in homesteading and small farm magazines.

In her Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds, she takes her passion and talent for writing on raising agricultural animals and has produced a very in-depth guide book on the common homestead poultry (chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys) as well as some brief information on the much less common poultry that may be raised (emus, guinea fowl, ostriches, partridges, peafowl, pheasants, quails, and swans).

The book is fairly exhaustive for breeds of common poultry that can be found in North America.  A few paragraphs, an informative fact box, and fantastic photos of each breed are included.  This is a great reference book if you plan on raising chickens, ducks, geese, or turkeys.  On top of that, Carol Ekarius is donating a portion of her proceeds for this book to the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.  

I highly recommend this book!

Recipes for Duck Leftovers... Rendered Duck Fat, Plum Duck Barbecue, Smokey Duck Liver Pate, Duck Omelette Asparagus Wraps, and Sauteed Veggies

Rendered Duck Fat 

(room temp at top and refrigerated at bottom)

The main food item I wanted to procure from my duck, after the meat of course, was the fat.  Rendered duck fat has long been cherished as a flavorful fat with which to cook.  It is a great fat to saute vegetables or mix into pie crusts instead of butter.  In reality, duck fat is much closer (health-wise) to olive oil than butter or beef fat.  It stores for months in the refrigerator and can be frozen for even longer.  The top photo is the rendered duck fat at room temperature - it's liquid.  The photo below that is  the rendered duck fat just removed from the refrigerator - it's a soft solid.  Treat it just like butter or lard or cooking oil.

I collected my rendered duck fat from the drip pan under the duck as it smoked.  I poured all the drippings into a 2 cup glass measuring cup.  The liquid fat formed a very distinct layer that I siphoned off with a turkey baster.  I left a bit of good fat in the cup so I didn't bring along any of the non-fat liquids.  Typically, rendered duck fat is much lighter in color.  Mine is darker due to the smoking process.  The flavor reflects that as well.  There is a smokey flavor added to the richness of the natural fat.  I keep this small ramekin in the refrigerator covered in plastic wrap.  I just take a spoonful or two whenever I want to add some rich, smokey flavor to some sauteed veggies.  Indulgent!  

Plum Duck Barbecue

This dish got me into quite a bit of trouble with my wife.  I made some great, savory plum sauce that I served with the original smoked ducks.  I ended up with too much left over, and I thought to myself that if I reduced it for a bit, it would likely make a thick, sweet, savory barbecue-like sauce.  Well, I also had the left over giblets and necks that I did not use the day before when I smoked the ducks.  So I simmered the hearts, gizzards, and necks in a saucepan of water with some thyme, pepper, salt, and I think a rough chopped carrot, until the meat was very tender.  I then picked the meat off the necks and chopped the heart and gizzard into small pieces.  This was mixed into the reduced sauce and a great barbecue style dish was created.  I served it with warm rolls, and we made mini duck barbecue sandwiches.  

After the meal, when I told my wife how glad I was to be able to use so many parts of the birds and explained to her how... well, she was not too happy.  She told me that she would prefer not to eat neck.  I told her that I think she has been too removed from whence her food comes.  She gave me the look.  I think I will tell my wife before she eats neck in the future.

Smokey Duck Liver Pate

I had two duck livers sitting there that were begging to be made into a pate.  I had never made pate, but I thought I would give it a try.  I sauteed the livers in a bit of the rendered duck fat over medium heat with a shot of Bowmore Single Malt Scotch.  I then placed the livers and cooking liquids into a food processor with some garlic, salt, pepper, a splash of heavy cream, and a little bit of thyme.  This was pureed until smooth, poured into a flat dish, and allowed to cool.  It was served with toasted croissants.  Very rich and savory.  Quite good for my first attempt if I say so myself! 

Duck Omelette Asparagus Wraps

I love to find creative ways to use up all my leftovers.  This is a great example.  We ended up with a small pile of duck meat that was cleaned off the bones after the carving was done.  With a turkey or chicken, I love to use this to make turkey or chicken salad sandwiches.  Smoked duck salad sandwiches just didn't sound that good to me.  That was when I thought of this omelet idea.  I lightly sauteed the chopped duck meat in a frying pan with a bit of olive oil and the rendered duck fat.  I then added one whisked egg, flipping once, until cooked through.  We also had a few grilled asparagus spears remaining from the night before, and these I wrapped in the omelet.  Easily a meal unto itself.

Radishes from my garden

Finally, with no more duck meat left, all I had remaining was my rendered duck fat.  Fresh from my garden I chopped these radishes and sauteed them a spoonful of the fat.  The smokey richness of the duck fat with the spicy, crisp radishes was a great flavor combination.

So, there you have it.  This is how I like to use my leftovers.  Entirely.  And with the sense that the leftover is not a leftover, but a primary goal in cooking the dish in the first place.

Smoked Duck

The finished smoked duck... amazing!

Duck has a reputation in the United States of being hard to cook.  Many people don't like duck  This is mainly due to people poorly cooking it.  How many of you have had duck at someone's house?  Greasy and smothered in orange sauce?  Who would want to eat that?  Uh... not me!

The other experience most others have had is at a Chinese restaurant.  You can often get really good duck at a Chinese restaurant... IF they know what they are doing.  It can be fantastic.  However, it can be really bad as well.

I have always liked duck.  I plan on raising my own ducks in the future, so I thought I would experiment a bit and try to find some alternate ways to prepare duck.  I had actually never heard of smoked duck before I had decided to get some ducks for my smoker.  After I had read a bit online, I found out that there were a number of people who were also smoking duck.  Not a lot, but enough for me to get some ideas of what I was looking to do and confirming my own ideas as well.

Duck does have a lot of fat in it.  This is not a problem.  It gives it a lot of flavor.  But we don't want the fat to stay in the meat.  I am not too concerned about the fat content in a health context (since I saved the fat!), but too much fat left in duck meat results in a greasy meat.  That is not tasty at all.  One way to avoid that is to make sure that the duck's skin has "drains" in it.  I used a paring knife and poked all over the skin, through the skin but not the meat (muscle) underneath, to allow the fat to drain as the birds cooked.

I rinsed the birds with cool water after I removed the giblets and neck from the cavity.  I only used a bit of salt on and in the birds.  The fat and smoke will provide enough flavor.  I covered the wings and legs with foil to prevent them from cooking too fast and burning (I removed the foil during the last hour).  I did not tie up the birds at all.  I wanted the smokey, hot air to circulate all around the birds.  

I arranged my offset smoker as you can see above.  On the left is the firebox.  I have a pile of charcoal ready to light.  To the right of that is my water pan.  I make sure to keep the air humid (not wet) by keeping this full of water.   Under the cooking grate in the smoke box I placed a drip pan to collect the fat from the cooking birds.  I'll discuss what I did with the fat in a later post.

I used a mix of hickory and mesquite wood blocks and chips - that was all I had access to where I live.  Hickory is a medium strength wood - flavor speaking.  We can use it with beef and pork in moderation, lightly with chicken, and it is probably too strong for lighter fish.  Mesquite is a stronger wood for flavor.  It can easily overpower smoked meats, so we use it with caution depending on the natural flavors of the meat we are smoking.  Duck and other waterfowl, as well as most game meats, are much more strongly flavored, so they can handle a bit more mesquite.  I thought a mix of about 60/40 hickory/mesquite would be a good ratio.

In general, I add wood every 15-30 minutes for the first few hours, then I only add additional charcoal to keep the temperature at a steady place.  

Temperatures are the most important thing to monitor when smoking/BBQ-ing.  There are a number of temperatures which I keep track.  First is the smoke box temperature.  I try to smoke/BBQ fatty meats at about 225 F (107 C).  This is the ideal temp to slowly melt the fat and connective tissues and create a juicy meat.  Lean meats like turkey can be smoked/BBQ'd at a bit higher temperature... 325 F (162C).  For duck, I tried to keep the cooking temp between 250-275 F (121-135 C).  It is fattier than turkey, but it doesn't have nearly the connective tissue as a brisket would have.  I monitor this temperature with a screw-on probe thermometer I drilled through the door of the smoke box.

The next temperature I monitor is the meat temperature.  I use a probe thermometer with a heat resistant cord connected to a battery operated digital display as you can see in the photo above.  My goal for duck is 160 F (71 C) in the deep breast.  Once the temp raises to this goal, it will continue cooking for a bit with an ultimate goal of 165 F (74 C).  I like this model.  On the lower line of the digital display, you can see the current probe temp on the left and the goal (alarm) temp on the right.

In reality, I don't completely trust this temperature probe.  I think the heat will conduct down the probe and give a falsely elevated reading.  When I get close to the goal temp, I will then use an instant read probe thermometer and check the meat in several places.  This gives me an idea of how much longer to BBQ the meat.  I will move one piece of meat to the cool end of the smoke box (farthest from the firebox) if it is at a higher temp than the other pieces.  In the case of the ducks, I spun them around since one end was cooking faster than the other.

Here is the end product.  A crispy skin.  Juicy but not greasy meat.  Good smoke flavor, but not overpowering.  It took about 4 hours... I think.  I wasn't really keeping track of the time.  Our guest for the duck dinner, Joan (also a bit of a food snob... in a good way!) is a duck lover.  She orders duck whenever she gets a chance.  She said that this was the best duck she has ever tasted.  High praise!  

There is a mix of art and science to smoking meat the right way.  Practice will make perfect.  Get to know your smoker, and you will be making great food!  Have fun!