I’ve watched food network a lot in the last few years and have noticed that Duck Breast is often served rare or at the most medium done. The meat in the center is quite red or medium pink. I’ve seen this on Iron Chef America and other shows as well.
Now I’ve never seen Chicken Breast served the same way. Personaly if I were served rare chicken it would be rejected. :eek:
What makes the difference? Could it be that chicken breast could be served rare if the chicken were individualy killed and cleaned rather than being factory processed along with millions of others?
Have any Dopers eaten rare or medium cooked duck breast? How was it?
I’ve had duck breast medium rare before and it was absolutely delicious. I can’t say what made this more acceptable or safer than medium rare chicken though. I would NEVER eat chicken that wasn’t cooked all the way through.
It does seem strange that the meats of two brids can be so different. Duck breast can most definitely be served medium, medium-rare, but chicken is never served in such a way. The texture of medium or rare chicken meat is never desirable. I think the same goes with rabbit meat, i once heard. And this has nothing to do with the health issues involved.
Chicken that isn’t thoroughly cooked is gross both texture- and taste-wise, besides the health issues.
Duck has a LOT more fat in it, and while I don’t know if the health issues are the same or not, the taste and texture is different because the composition of the meat is different than chicken.
Can Safely Cooked Duck and Goose Be Pink?
“Cooked muscle meats can be pink even when the meat has reached a safe minimum internal temperature. If fresh duck or goose has reached a safe minimum internal temperature of 165 °F as measured with a food thermometer, even though it may still be pink in the center, it should be safe. The pink color can be due to the cooking method or added ingredients. For reasons of personal preference, consumers may choose to cook poultry to higher temperatures.”
On the chicken page it says:
Pink Meat
“The color of cooked chicken is not a sign of its safety. Only by using a food thermometer can one accurately determine that chicken has reached a safe minimum internal temperature of 165 °F throughout. The pink color in safely cooked chicken may be due to the hemoglobin in tissues which can form a heat-stable color. Smoking or grilling may also cause this reaction, which occurs more in young birds.”
Both pages talk about the types of bacteria that each meat may possibly be contaminated with, and they recommend that both meats be cooked to the same internal temperature. It’s possible, since duck meat is much darker anyway (due to more myoglobin being present than in chicken or turkey meat), that it is more cooked than it looks on those TV shows. And I’ve personally cooked turkeys that were still a little pink even though they were definitely done all the way through.
Thanks for all the input. I roasted a whole duck at Christmas and it took about 45 minutes longer than calculated for the meat to look done. And that was at a temp of 170. Still looked somewhat pink and it was hard to convince my Mom and wife to eat it. :dubious: It made me wonder about the possible differences. As mantioned, duck is a darker meat to start with, so maybe what we see on TV is actually more done than it looks.
Now to find some duck breast and get cooking. Local markets only have complete ducks and that’s frozen.