So when are you going to be on ‘Beat Bobby Flay’?
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What do you use for bread? I make throw but struggle with decent bread choices.
Ideally I grab pitas from the bakery that makes them for many local restaurants. Those are great. However this time I was pressed for time so I went with grocery store pita.
Mmmm, i should have taken a photo, but i did easy duck breast today. I bought a huge, meaty breast. I scored the fatty side, and salted the breast, lightly on the meat side and heavily on the fatty side. Then i put it in my cast iron skillet, fatty-side down and turned on the heat to medium. I let it slowly sizzle until most of the fat had rendered (pouring out the fat twice, into a glass jar) then flipped it and cooked it a bit on the meaty side.
Because it was such a large breast, the inside was still raw, so i put it into a pre-heated oven until my thermometer said 125+ in the interior.
Then i took it out, slid it on a plate, and let it rest 10 minutes. Then sliced it about 1/4" thick, and served.
It feels extravagant to buy the breast, since i could have bought a whole duck for 50% more, but cooking just the breast is a lot quicker and easier than cooking the whole bird.
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You have interesting cooking methods!
I think I need a cold shower after reading Lucy’s post.
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And I’m 50/50 on whether or not there was some ducking autocorrect in there.
You’re welcome
Is a duck harder to break down than a chicken? The cooking shows always end up with a whole bird that they break down for what ever they decide to do. I’m just lazy. But for only 50% more than a (single?) breast it might be worth it.
By “break down” you mean “cut into the parts you plan to use”? Not, it’s trivial to break down either. Yes, i could have purchased a whole duck, removed both boneless breasts and the two leg quarters, frozen the leg quarters and the other boneless breast, and frozen the rest of the carcass for making stock.
(Duck broth is a terrific base for soups. It’s unctuous like pork. My family doesn’t eat pork, so i like to use duck broth to make things like pea soup.)
It’s not harder per se. It’s still a bird and it has all the same parts, BUT some of the parts are different lengths and shape on a duck than they are on chicken. In general, a duck is taller and narrower than a chicken, which is more round.
A difficulty I always have is splitting the legs part from a carcass. On TV cooking shows, they always do it in about 2 seconds, but I always end up fumbling around for a few minutes. It’s hard for me trying to find where to cleanly slice through the hip joint to free the thigh from the body and through the knee to free the drumstick from the thigh.
On a few occasions when I have made turducken, I completely debone all 3 birds, and pre-roast the chicken and duck.
A key thing about roasting a duck is that you want to salvage the fat/schmaltz for use on something else, like frying some vegetables. Duck fat is tasty.
Duck thighs attach to the torso differently than chicken thighs, but I’ve carved enough ducks that I don’t find them any more difficult than chickens. Just slightly different.
On both, I find it helpful to flex the joint to feel where the joint is before sticking the knife in.
Sirloin, leeks, brussel sprouts, and corn. I did the sprouts in the oven. I’m not normally a huge sirloin fan but we got half a cow and we’re gonna eat it. But it is surprisingly tender. Not bad.
ETA: highly recommend Andria’s steak sauce. It’s mostly onions and garlic, similar flavor to Worcestershire sauce but more mellow.
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