Simple duck breast

[Gore]

I don't remember when I cooked this. I think it may have been about a month ago between trips when I didn't have time to post. In any case, it is just a couple duck breasts, salt and peppered:



For me, the primary goal in cooking duck is rendering as much of the fat as possible. I want a thin, and crispy outer layer if possible. I cut the grooves to help with the rendering. I put these into a frying pan.



and use the side burner on the gasser. I don't think I've used that side burner for anything else. It is really good for duck though as duck has a LOT of fat and if I tried to do this in the house, I'd probably be divorced:



The pic is about halfway done. Look at all that duck fat in the frying pan, better there than in me. The grease continues to fill up that pan. I'm always amazed how much there is. I do not cover because I don't want the duck meat to cook, just the fat. When I've had about enough of this as I can take, I throw it on the grill:



I was in a hurry and just used the gasser. One word of caution. That duck fat is an EXCELLENT insulator. Even though I've had that breast in the frying pan, fat-side down for 10+ minutes, the meat is still pretty raw. I grill both sides for about 4-5 minutes, about how I would cook a 1.5"-thick ribeye. I don't want to overcook this. If you take duck past medium rare, I find it tastes like liver.



The color on this is redder than it really was, but you can tell that it is still pretty pink. In reality it was between rare and medium rare. Note the fat layer is much thinner and even crispy. On the nearer side, it's thicker than I would have liked. I probably could've kept it in the frying pan a few more minutes, but it's still pretty good.

[Al Czervik]

Looks good Gore. I have never tried cooking farm raised duck but am inspired to give it a shot after seeing yours. I used to hunt A LOT of duck and can relate to the comment about over cooked duck tasting like liver (and sometimes steel pellets ). I always attributed it to it being wild, but then again I never cooked it medium rare either.

[Phubar]

Duckbreasts are awesome!
Too bad they are so expensive over here.
Nice job on that Phat Gore!

[Gore]

Gheesh Mongo, do you ever sleep?

[jestridge]

Looks good! Need to butcher some of my Muscovey ducks

[deguerre]

Originally Posted by Gore

Gheesh Mongo, do you ever sleep?

Eggplant Man has no need for sleep.

Beautiful Gore! We don't get just the breasts in our local grocers but I'm tempted to buy a whole one now and cut it up.

[D0ughB0y]

I'd have to disagree that the duck fat is better in the pan than in you. Cut some potatoes up into cubes and fry them up in the duck fat. Best tater's you'll ever have.

The only other suggestion that I'd have for you is to cut the cross-hatch a little less-deep and render that fat out on a lower heat setting.


That looks yummy as hell though. I'd say that done-ness is really good.

[Al Czervik]

Originally Posted by Gore

Gheesh Mongo, do you ever sleep?

Not as much as I would like to...

[Gore]

Originally Posted by D0ughB0y

I'd have to disagree that the duck fat is better in the pan than in you. Cut some potatoes up into cubes and fry them up in the duck fat. Best tater's you'll ever have.

The only other suggestion that I'd have for you is to cut the cross-hatch a little less-deep and render that fat out on a lower heat setting.


That looks yummy as hell though. I'd say that done-ness is really good.

Sorry, I just can't eat taters like that anymore. As far as the rendering, that is the lowest setting my side-burner can do. I'd love it if I could set it lower, but it goes out. The low on the Weber is like a med-high on our inside stove.

[Wrench_H]

That looks really good Gore. Thanks for sharing.

[likeadeere]

Awesome pics and recipe - just in time for duck season out here. I'm going to have to try this out - always have plenty of duck breast and goose around here during the winter - but I've always steered clear of it, because I can't cook it. I fried a duck breast once; once - it tasted worse than liver, more like tar glazed leather.....

[Al Czervik]

Originally Posted by likeadeere

I fried a duck breast once; once - it tasted worse than liver, more like tar glazed leather.....

I used to take the duck and goose and grind it up to make sausage and pepperoni sticks...

[D0ughB0y]

Originally Posted by likeadeere

Awesome pics and recipe - just in time for duck season out here. I'm going to have to try this out - always have plenty of duck breast and goose around here during the winter - but I've always steered clear of it, because I can't cook it. I fried a duck breast once; once - it tasted worse than liver, more like tar glazed leather.....

The type of bird and their feeding habits really impact the flavor of it also. Diver and swamp feeding ducks are going to taste of it... not so good. Grain and rice ducks are going to be nice.

My neighbor does a lot of hunting. He's usually got enough meat to end up feeding the dogs and the other neighbor's dogs. Sometimes, if he's got a lot of teal, I'll get some and cook 'em up.

A good milk soak overnight seems to cut a lot of the gamey/bitter taste. I've done tons of them and there are two decent sauces that I've found really compliments the birds... one is a honey and fig sauce and the other is a white wine garlic (almost like scampi).

[kihrer]

Originally Posted by D0ughB0y

I'd have to disagree that the duck fat is better in the pan than in you. Cut some potatoes up into cubes and fry them up in the duck fat. Best tater's you'll ever have.

The only other suggestion that I'd have for you is to cut the cross-hatch a little less-deep and render that fat out on a lower heat setting.


That looks yummy as hell though. I'd say that done-ness is really good.

Duck fat is awesome to use in cooking. Render enough of it and you can confit some whole garlic which can then be used as a spread or used in sauces. Then take the fat after you have finished the garlic and fry you up some taters like DoughBoy suggested.

BTW, the OP's duck breasts look mighty tasty.

[D0ughB0y]

Originally Posted by kihrer

Duck fat is awesome to use in cooking. Render enough of it and you can confit some whole garlic which can then be used as a spread or used in sauces. Then take the fat after you have finished the garlic and fry you up some taters like DoughBoy suggested.

BTW, the OP's duck breasts look mighty tasty.

It is pretty amazing how much fat you can get out of the pope's nose if you do it right too!