Friday, December 1, 2006

Some inside skinny on Duck Fat-

Chef Dunn always trimmed his duck breast fat quite a bit, and then scored the remaining fat cap to facilitate crisping. I adopted the practice with very satisfactory results. I find that duck breasts with all of the fat left on them have a tendancy to be not as crispy and in fact kind of gooey and less than stellar. It won't matter how yummy the sauce is, the gooey, chewy fat will tank the efforts.



When I score the fat cap, I run a sharp knife the long way diagonally just through the depth of the fat cap. I have seen Emeril then make the same cut the other direction creating a diamond shaped pattern. He claims that chilling the duck breast will cause the fat to then shrink a bit, resulting in a nice crispy finish for your duck breasts. I have to agree. By scoring the cap in a diamond shape, you give it the chance to render that much more of the fat off without over cooking your duck.



The Pro tip, then, is to save all of the trimmed fat, and render it off in a hot oven. Put the trimmed off bits into a pan and bake at about 375F for 20 minutes or so. You are done when all you have left is golden brown craklins and clear fat. Pull the craklin's and dry them on paper towels, and pour the rendered fat into a storage vessel. This is magic goodness for sauteed veggies (a favorite is Brussels sprouts) and the craklins are just delicious snacks. Or as a friend Chris suggests, a delicious garnish for salads. Duck fat is one of the secret weapons that restaurants use to make things that much richer.

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