cooking muscovy duck that I skinned

[dayna]

Soooooo

How do you all, who skin your ducks, cook your duck?

 

[JessiL]

Confit! I confit just about everything these days (rabbit, goose, duck), so easy and impossible to dry out the meat.

 

[AmysMacdog]

Confit? I'm not familiar with that word, what is confit?

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Confit? I'm not familiar with that word, what is confit?

Salted meat cooked and preserved in its own fat.

http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-confit.htm#slideshow

Dayna, here is a recipe for duck confit:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/duck ... ndex.html#!

It calls for 8 ounces of duck fat, but I bet you could use bacon grease instead.

 

[AmysMacdog]

Oh ok, thank you MSD. I'm following this thread with great interest with 5 baby muscovies coming a long. I can already tell at least 2 are drakes. I only plan to keep one and any girls.
Mmmmm bacon grease sounds great!

 

[Cottie]

Oh ok, thank you MSD. I'm following this thread with great interest with 5 baby muscovies coming a long. I can already tell at least 2 are drakes. I only plan to keep one and any girls.
Mmmmm bacon grease sounds great!

Hopefully you don't get fluffy ducky syndrome like I did. I had two Pekin drakes. We slaughtered one. I cried the entire time I was plucking him. Literally, the entire time.

Now we're going to raise ducks for eggs. :lol: Maybe we can eat the ones the hens hatch out and I don't have to brood.

 

[dayna]

I cursed the entire time I TRIED to pluck him. Plucking is HARD, skinning is HARD. lol

I had a dream last night about cooking this duck. Silly I know, but my brain does some of happy processing in my sleep so I try to listen.

My dream had me cooking the duck this way:

thaw
soak in salt water for a couple days
wrap in bacon, put into the self basting roaster, small amount of beef base and red wine in the bottom.
cook
remove from roaster, collect juices and grease
crisp bacon in regular oven
take juices, mushrooms, shallots, port wine and blackberry jam.
reduce
pour over duck

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I had a dream last night about cooking this duck.

May I request a formal invitation to your next dream, please? :zzz: :dinner: :zzz:

 

[dayna]

I know, so silly! But I get some of my best recipes when I'm asleep! haha!

 

[GBov]

Have REALLY enjoyed reading up on confit so THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

And a second to the dream invite, your way sounds wonderful, hope it works as well in the real world.

 

[Cottie]

I cursed the entire time I TRIED to pluck him. Plucking is HARD, skinning is HARD. lol

I know with Pekins you're supposed to slaughter when they're molting. That's why they're usually done between 6 and 7 weeks, because they're getting in a new batch of feathers. The old ones come out a lot more easily.

Of course, you can't always time it right, but if you can... :lol:

 

[dayna]

I'm cooking it on Wednesday. Going to put it into a light salt water and bay leaf brine today.<br /><br />__________ Mon Dec 16, 2013 7:56 am __________<br /><br />I was also thinking, we made a roast once with Guinness, I bet that would go good with duck too!

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I was also thinking, we made a roast once with Guinness, I bet that would go good with duck too!

I've made gravy with Guinness before. One Thanksgiving I made the mistake of using some of the water that I had boiled our sweet potatoes in, and the gravy was sweet- so to balance the flavor, I sacrificed some Guinness to the cause! :lol:

 

[JessiL]

I know it's traditional to salt the meat before putting it in the fat to make confit, but I almost never bother when it's nice young, tender rabbit or duck. Wild goose or grouse, that does get a little more aggressive of a treatment.

After the confit has finished with the fat step, we often pull it out and sear it in a cast-iron skillet as a final step. I'm told it makes incredible shredded meat, and of course, it is a traditional ingredient in cassoulet.