Great Discovery

I’ve found that you can get a whole duck for a little over $12 at the local Asian grocery. This has resulted in a cornucopia of autumn meat dishes. After reviewing a video of how to break down a duck, which is much easier than breaking down a chicken, I did so. First, I took off the breasts. This is the only drawback on these inexpensive ducks. Unlike the pricier gourmet ducks, these are definitely A cup ducks. Then I cut the legs off. Finally, I rendered the fat from the skin and leftover bits (the neck, back, wings, etc.)

The Legs
There’s one move with duck legs as far as I’m concerned: confit. You get luscious, flavorful meat that can be chopped up for rillettes, reheated and served with salad greens, put into a croque monsieur or removed from the bone and cooked with beans in something like cassoulet. Plus, you can reuse the fat you use to confit the first pair of legs to confit others. I confitted the legs from this duck, let them ripen over this past weekend. I softened a little mirepoix in some duck fat, added some borlotti beans, rosemary and garlic and let that simmer till the beans got tender, then added the chopped up meat from these two legs. I had originally planned to make cracklins with the skin from the legs to garnish the beans, but the cracklins never had a chance once they came out of the skillet.

The Breasts
I cured them for 24 hours in kosher salt, then rinsed off the salt, dusted them with white pepper and wrapped and hung them. They’re due to come down today or tomorrow, giving me my first batch of duck prosciutto, which will allow me to use prosciutto in dishes from Hazan’s cookbook but still please the people in my house who don’t eat four legged animals.

The Fat
I’ve now got two labeled crocks of fat in the bottom of the fridge: bacon and duck. The entire body gave me about a cup of fat which retails for about $11 per 10 oz container. It’s good for frying potatoes, adding to beans, really anything that calls for fat that you want to be flavorful.

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