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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.
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.
. I always attributed it to it being wild, but then again I never cooked it medium rare either.
