[Sca-cooks] Just checking in to crow a bit... I think invented something, sort of...

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Hullo, the list!

For reasons best left unexplored just now, I'm up to my ears in salted duck products (also pork, but that's quite straightforward gabbagool -- cappocola to you).

Some of you may have heard of cured duck or goose  products for, for example, Italian Jews, and some of you may have heard me mention making liverwursts from the livers, abdominal fat and giblets of several ducks, some of which I've stuffed into largeish beef sausage casings, and in the neck skin of two of the ducks. I've also got a large beef casing duck salami filled with a stuffing made from the leg meat and fat from two muscovy ducks, with crushed garlic, salt, black peppercorns, and red wine. The breasts of the Muscovy ducks, in pairs, are Kosher-style duck prosciutto.

I've also got two whole, deboned, Peking ducks, which, just for giggles, I salt-cured, dusted with pepper, rolled and stuck into large collagen casings, hoping to achieve a prosciutto-like product. I think they're going to need a longer time to cure, as they seem to have more moisture and a good deal more fat tan the Muscovies. In fact, there will surely be areas where slices will be almost all fat and a little skin, so I'm beginning to realize these will be more analogous to lardo, or possibly pancetta, than to prosciutto.

This evening, while awaiting developments on some other projects, I noticed some darkening on the surface of one of the ducks (which turned out not to be the mold I feared it might be -- it was just black pepper in a bit of concentration and natural darkening of some exposed meat). In order to examine it, I had to unwrap it (this one was wrapped in cheesecloth), and there it was, staring at me, with me unsure whether this would ever be a really viable product. I'm playing it by ear here, there are, as far as I know, no written instructions anywhere for making lardo from a whole Peking duck -- there's so much soft fat on it that it doesn't behave like breast meat, or like pork.

Well, okay, since it was there, I cut some off and tasted it, and lived, and in fact it friggin' rocked, if I say so myself. You need a really sharp knife to get a thin, well-defined slice, but with a glass of wine, some crusty bread or something cracker-ey, and some fruit, and you are unquestionably all set. 

I rewrapped it in a new collagen casing, and, on a whim, tried pouring about a quarter cup of red wine into the casing before sealing it with a hog ring crimp. Any more and I'd be concerned with messing up the curing process, but this will probably be all right, and it'll be interesting, I think, to see what this does to the finished product in comparison to the other, similar one, without the wine.

All these duck products should be ready in time for Hanukkah. The Muscovy breast prosciutto is probably ready to eat, but won't be at its best in time for Thanksgiving. Maybe I'll break out the liverwursts next Thursday.

Hoping you all have a wonderful holiday!

Adamantius






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls, when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter