Last night I pan-seared some duck breasts, and served them with a cranberry-cherry sauce (yum!). I could not get duck at our local supermarkets, so I bought a six-pack of them from D’Artagnan. They came skin-on, which was not how I desired to cook them. So, I peeled off the skin and copious amounts of fat, and made dinner (using two of the breast halves; I’ve got the other four in the freezer).
After dinner, I cut the skin/fat into 1" chunks and rendered the fat (and had salted duck cracklings as a snack). Now I’ve got 1.5 - 2 cups of duck fat in the refirgerator. So, the question is, what do I do with it?
Sometime soon I will fry up some potatoes in it. I’m thinking something like home fries - cubed potatoes, shallots, maybe a little bell pepper. Unfortunately, that is all I have for ideas, and I don’t want to make fried potatoes every day for a week.
Send me your yummy suggestions for duck fat, please.
I’ve seen an episode of Great Chefs wherein French chefs fry fish in duck or goose fat. The fish in question was a filet of sole. I’m sure that just about anything you fry in duck fat is going to come out tasting fabulous - it’s one of the yummier fats going.
Add some to ground beef next time you make hamburgers. Seriously. Otherwise, it should freeze, no? Something will come along.
I wonder if you could add it to baked beans instead of salt-pork. . .
I can’t get duck that often, but I love it. I was worried when you said, “they came skin-on, which was not how I desired to cook them.”
But then I saw you had the “duck cracklins” later on. Eating crispy duck skin is one of the more sublime experiences going. Salty, cripsy skin with a cold beer. Ho-lee shit that’s good.
Not that you asked, but duck a l’orange with the duck done on a bar-b-que is heavenly. I use a Steven Raichlen recipe for mine.
Mail it to me?
Anything potato-y is great cooked with duck fat. Eggs fried in duck fat are yummy. Do some kind of rillettes, and pack them in duck fat? Use it to make roux?
I like to use it for Chinese stir-fry, especially fried rice. The smoke point is a little lower than for standard wok oils, but that’s easy to manage, and the flavor can’t be beat.
The orange sauce is pretty standard – you can find a million recipes for it. His is nice, but tangier rather than sweeter.
I cooked Ol’ Daffy over indirect heat on a charcoal grill. Make sure to put a drip pan under him.
However, I just googled for it, and it looks like Raichlen makes “beer can duckling a l’orange”. Based on the popular “beer can chicken” technique (that is, ramming a can of beer up the duck’s ass and making a tripod out of him on the grill).
Make french fries like they do at Hot Doug’s. They only serve them on Fridays and Saturdays and there are lines for days waiting on an order of them. God, I want some duck fat fries…
I recommend duck confit - duck slowly cooked in its own fat to tender perfection. The perfect fall dish. I made it a couple of weeks ago. It takes a tremendous amount of duck fat, which I cut from the duck and rendered, along with some chicken fat (and olive oil). Herbs fron the garden and garlic. I used a 24-hour salting method and have the finished product in a jar in my refrigerator, good to last up to 6 months. Pull out a leg or breast piece and place in oven to melt away excess fat. Shred and serve with a salad.
PS it is probably the worst thing in the world for you, fat-wise, but it sure is tender and yummy.
Just a suggestion, since you have four more -
Next time, BBQ/fry/grill those babies with fat and skin and trim the fat after cooking, but before serving. It really enhances the flavor.
Duck is the ambrosia of meat. Not as greasy as goose, nor as dry as turkey, with a slight gamey taste, which isn’t too strong.
As for the leftovers, you could always try to make some stock. Onions, carrots, duck fat, red wine, salt, freshly ground black pepper. I’ve never done it, but in my mind, it seems like something that would work out really well.
Amen to your first statement. I love duck breast grilled until the skin is crisp yet the meat is medium-rarish, then sliced and fanned out on a plate. Goodums.
I’ve made duck stock. I browned the meaty bones of a carcass with the usual additions of celery, carrot, onions, red wine, etc. It made heavenly stock, much tastier than chicken, as you might imagine. Mr. brown detests duck (he says he has seen too many poopy, green duck ponds at petting zoos), so I don’t get the chance to cook duck very often. Dommage!
I had a friend that popped popcorn in bacon grease. I wonder if you couldn’t do the same with duck fat…though I’m not sure why you’d want to. I’d pitch it.
A week ago tonight, I made a multi-course dinner for my department, with the final course (not counting dessert) a seared black-pepper duck breast with a chocolate-pomegranate sauce. Mmmmm.
Back in the day, if we wanted duck, we had to shoot our own. We had to be careful when chewing, as shotgun pellets were to be expected. And it was uphill both ways.
I was in France last week and watched several cookery programs on the hotel TV. They use this stuff like butter or canola oil. It might give you a heart attack, but damn it makes stuff taste good before you die.
Put it in a sterilised jar, sealed in the fridge, and it’ll keep for weeks.
