Thread: just wanted to share tonight's dinner with you guys..

Well the ducks were picked up today. I broke the am down into pieces and removed all of the skin. That got rendered this afternoon. The breasts are in their brine and the legs are curing with salt.

OCDshaver, For just making confit would you recommend buying duck fat or rendering it one's self?

Originally Posted by Leatherstockiings

OCDshaver, For just making confit would you recommend buying duck fat or rendering it one's self?

If you're buying whole ducks you definitely want to render the fat. There's so much on them and it's so good. But you will probably not have enough fat to make the confit. You'll probably need to bulk it up with some more. I hate to suggest buying it because it's rather expensive for what is a free byproduct when you buy whole birds. But you will probably need more or some chicken fat to pull it off. I peel of all of the fat from the carcasses and add all the excess from the legs and breasts. Then I put it in a food processor and grind it until it looks like frosting. Then that goes into a large sauce pot on low until it's clear.

Confit my new word for the day.

My grandmother told me of storing Pork Chops in a crock in the basement in fat. When she was good and deserved a special treat she was told to go down and get herself a chop out of the fat. Stored/preserved at a cool room temperature.

Originally Posted by 32t

Confit my new word for the day.

My grandmother told me of storing Pork Chops in a crock in the basement in fat. When she was good and deserved a special treat she was told to go down and get herself a chop out of the fat. Stored/preserved at a cool room temperature.

Yep. Pork, duck, and goose all lend themselves to making confit. But it also works with rabbit and even chicken.

Originally Posted by 32t

Confit my new word for the day.

My grandmother told me of storing Pork Chops in a crock in the basement in fat. When she was good and deserved a special treat she was told to go down and get herself a chop out of the fat. Stored/preserved at a cool room temperature.

My dad was born breach on the homestead in 1930 he used to talk about how they would butcher hogs, then make sausage/both smoked and fresh then his mother, my beloved granny would take the fresh sausage, make patties, then fry them in what dad said had to be about a 15" cast iron pan on the wood stove, then place the patties in a large earthen crock and once she had a layer she'd pour hot lard to cover, then go back to making and frying sausage patties and repeat the process. Once the crock was full and with a lot of help, it was moved to the root cellar for storage.

When granny wanted sausage to serve she would dig down and pull out what she needed, then heat them up.

Dad said that after a few months the sausage got a bit 'strong' but they had something to eat.

Oh! Dad used to tell about the dry cured hams and bacon's! They were stored in gunny sacks with no refrigeration. Dad would almost start to drool talking about them! He said the best ones had been stored for about a year!

Now I'm drooling geeeez !!

Ladies and gentlemen, we have smoke.

Originally Posted by OCDshaver

Ladies and gentlemen, we have smoke.

Where there is smoke, there is... a lot of tasty duck?

I gotta find some conference or something to go to in Chicago
The guy I used to collaborate with retired a bunch of years ago

Originally Posted by gugi

Where there is smoke, there is... a lot of tasty duck?

I gotta find some conference or something to go to in Chicago
The guy I used to collaborate with retired a bunch of years ago

Yes there is duck. The last three days have been all about duck. I didn't post any pics because they aren't much different from the last time I posted about this a year or more ago. But it was a good smoke today, very controlled. My temps never exceeded 230 and the duck came out at 160.