I picked up my ducks today!

[hippywife]

:woohoo:

[Phentex]

1. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmaaaassss!

Quack Quack! Enjoy!


I think I've been inspired by Rbrrrrrr's thread to do surf & turf for the main holiday dinner.

[hippywife]

4. Thanx, we will

even tho we don't celebrate Christmas. Just a nice three day weekend calls for a great meal. LOL

Enjoy your meal, sounds great! We're thinking of ordering our lobsters and clams for New Year's Day, maybe. I dunno.

[elleng]

2. How many? FOR how many?

:hug:

[hippywife]

3. Two ducks just under 5 lbs. each.

For just the two of us. I like to have lots of leftovers when it's gonna be something this good. :9

[Warpy]

5. Don't forget to pour off the duck fat after the first hour of baking

Rendered duck fat will get you through the rest of the year. Try sauteed potatoes in it, it's divine stuff.

If I ever buy a duck for myself, it'll be mostly for its fat.

[wildflower]

6. I've never rendered before, but would like to try it

I've seen a few different methods out there and am trying to decide. What method do you use?

One concern is I like to season my poultry before roasting (for example, paprika, thyme, maybe a little onion or garlic powder). One time I saved the fat from that and tried it in a cake instead of butter. LOL. The taste was interesting. :) I'm not sure if rendering would get rid of that.

[Warpy]

7. The first hour of cooking renders the fat from the duck skin

I don't know what recipe you're using, but most tell you to cut small slits in the skin at intervals to allow the fat to drain.

That duck is plenty fatty, so this doesn't dry it out.

You can season the skin afterward, if you want to. I've cooked ducks 90% or so and done the last 10% with a tea and spice smoking mixture in a wok. It stunk up the house, but it was SO good.

[wildflower]

12. I think maybe I've been confused about what rendering is

I thought it was a process that removed the impurities of a fat so it becomes a pure oil that doesn't spoil, sort of like making ghee from butter.

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. You have a couple options for rendering the fat

One is to just scoop up whatever dripped out while the bird is cooking.

One can also steam the duck before putting it in the oven - that gets rid of a fair amount of the fat, and will leave you with a mess of water and fat in the pan which is then easily separated. I've cooked ducks this way, and I like it. My preference is still for an oven roasted, non-steamed one, though.

You can also, after the duck is cooked and you've enjoyed of it whatever you care to eat, toss all the leftovers (especially any fatty parts, and absolutely any of the fat that you might have cut off before you ever cooked it) into a sauce pan (or crockpot), cover with water, and cook at a low temperature for a couple hours.

It will make a nice stock, and also render out more fat that can be scooped up off the top of the water.

However, if you are like me and consider the real reason to make a duck to have crispy, fatty duck skin that you eat in its entirety, there won't be enough of anything left on the fuck with fat to make it worthwhile to try to render any more! :-)

With either of these methods, any spicing that you've done on the duck won't be sticking around to flavor the fat in any sufficient way to worry about it, especially if you strain the fat through a sieve.

[wildflower]

13. Covering with water and cooking at a low temperature

Is that like this method, here:

http://www.sugarlaws.com/how-to-render-duck-fat

[Rabrrrrrr]

14. That's it!

[wildflower]

16. Thanks!

Now I just have to figure out where to get a "flying pan." :shrug:

Only kidding; I'm sure she meant a frying pan. :D

[japple]

9. Well, at least you won't have to kill them first! You gonna serve

that with the lobstah? Seriously, I bet that would make a great salad combination: duck and lobster served on a bed of salad greens and topped with raspberry vinagrette dressing.

[Tab]

10. I'll walk you through it

Send one here, and on the phone together I'll talk you through it. You know, like pilots do when one has a heart attack and is slumped over the controls and the guy in the back says "I've never flown a big plane but I have flown the little ones at the mall" and they bring him up while all passengers want to know what's going on and the cute stewardessess (all unattached) and the one gay steward (also unattached) comfort them by plying them with drinks and free peanuts, and then graduate up to free little samplers of Chex Mix because a well-fed and liquored herd of cattle is a happy herd of cattle, and then the hippy guy in the next to last row gets his guitar out of the overhead storage bin one bin down and puts on a strap and luckily he has only two people in a three-seat "row" and the middle is empty, and a few teenage girls take up seats around him and look at him lovingly while he strums the chords badly to "you are my sunshine, my only sunshine" which he sings in soft and occasionally sexy voice, and then, feeling the entertainer in him, mangles this story about about a farm kid with a duck who was going to town, met a lonely whore upon the way who propositioned him, but he pleaded that all he had was this duck, and she said "That works for me" so he rode her with all he had and when he was done, exhausted really, she offered the duck back to him if he would just do her one more time and, well, this poor farm kid was exhausted but he couldn't pass up the opportunity to get his duck back, so, he agreed, but was unable to get his "duck up" as it were, so while she writhed in ectasy, he vigorously was pushing the duck in and out of her, um, nest until she just collapsed in orgasmic ectasy, unaware - both unaware, actually - that they were being espied upon by the farmer whose wife he was just "d"ucking. Although the farm boy expected a fight, he was surprised that the farmer was impressed - so impressed, actually, that he offered the boy $20 for the duck since his wife liked it so much. The farm boy goes home and his pa asks what happened to the duck, and the boy responds that he got a fuck for a duck, a duck for a fuck, and $20 for a fucked-up duck.

If you made it past the duck seasoning, and still love me, give me a call, and I'll walk you through the rest of the recipe.

- Tab

[hippywife]

11. Ummm, yeah...okay.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Tab]

15. Now pork tenderloin....

 
that's another story altogether.

[hippywife]

17. I've no doubt whatsoever that it is.

:eyes:



:rofl:

[yellerpup]

18. I'm so jealous!

I love duck. The best one I ever made was with herbs de Province and glazed with lavender honey. And oven fries made with duck fat are the BEST of any fries you'll ever have. Enjoy, my dear! Happy holidays! :hi:

[hippywife]

19. Sweet yeller!

If I don't screw this up too badly, LOL, just let me know the next time you need to come down here and I'll have one all prepared for you. Happy, happy to you, too, hon!

What are your plans? :hi: :hug:

[yellerpup]

20. You inspired me, actually...

We are expecting a storm on Christmas Day, whether it will be ice or rain or snow is still up in the air so we stocked up at the grocers last night. I found a beautiful little DUCK, just right for two people and that will be my Christmas dinner. (I'm also trying parsnips for the first time) For tonight (the Eve) I am finishing up with the two leftover veal shanks that have been in the freezer since my October dinner party and am revisiting osso bucco. A friend sent a box of 6 little cakes from Nieman-Marcus, so I won't have to bake. Now, I need to get going and finish notes on the Christmas cards. Mr. Pup is late getting our personal cards done because he spent months working on an animated card for his job. Really outstanding animation--here's the link: http://www.visualexllc.com/vlexholiday2009/2009Holiday.html

I wish you all the best in the New Year and the warmest, coziest, yummiest holidays ever! :loveya:

[hippywife]

21. Backatcha doll!

Enjoy your weekend whatever the weather. Sounds like we will be having the same forcast.

Quack! :rofl:

:hug:

[hippywife]

22. BTW.

That is an adorable card. Tell Mr. yeller he did a great job. :hug:

[yellerpup]

23. Thanks, I will.

Happy, happy, merry, merry, jingle, jingle, quack! :hi: