Things to do with a duck

[nonelvis]

On Sunday night, I roasted a duck we got from our friends at Mack Hill Farm. It was a Pekin – a breed Frank and Lisa tell us is especially mean, so I'm feeling particularly un-guilty about having eaten it. It was noticeably more flavorful than commercial duck, and since the vast majority of commercial ducks sold in this country are Pekins, it was easy to compare this duck to one we could have purchased at the supermarket.

On Tuesday, I rendered the leftover pieces of duck fat. Dinner that night was CSA potatoes roasted in duck fat, and a salad of CSA greens plus some roasted golden beets.

Tonight, it's leftover duck and vegetable fried rice, fried in, you guessed it, duck fat.

Tomorrow, I will make duck stock from the carcass. Some of that will go into lentil soup; the rest will go in the freezer.

I haven't quite figured out what to do with the duck fat I'll still have left over after tonight – possibly roast the last of the CSA carrots and parsnips – but I'm sure I'll come up with something.

And that, I believe, is how you make use of a duck.

Comments

[fonticulus.livejournal.com]

It's pretty telling that on reading the post title, I immediately thought 1) confit, and 2) roasted potatoes in duck fat.

All of that sounds very amazing and delicious. Why can't we email bites yet? Is someone working on that technology?

[nonelvis]

Someone should work on that technology, dammit.

If only I had enough duck fat for confit! Oh well. I'll just have to buy more ducks.

[gritsinmisery.livejournal.com]

I dunno what kind of duck my dad had back when he and my mom were dating, but the damn thing had mom terrorized. It hated her with a passion quite intense (or perhaps it just hated everyone but Dad.) Mom never said what happened to the beast... I hope somebody ate it, but I would imagine it was a stringy old thing.

OTOH, all of this sounds yummy.

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

I've never eaten duck. Sounds good. I ought to try it sometime.

[nonelvis]

Apparently when mating, the male Pekins would bite the females' necks so hard they bled, and the males also, no lie, raped the geese my friends keep as well. I have no guilt whatsoever about eating an animal that mean.

[nonelvis]

It's delicious, but for some reason, Americans don't eat much of it. (Maybe because it's got a much stronger, gamier flavor than chicken or turkey?) If you've never had it before, you might want to try Peking duck at a Chinese restaurant that does it well -- it's hard to beat the combination of duck, crispy duck skin, hoisin, and scallions.

[biichan.livejournal.com]

I'm with nonelvis, it's awesome. We have duck at our house instead of turkey at holidays (including Thanksgiving) and it's so much better.

[nonelvis]

Ooh, good idea! Except then we wouldn't have any leftovers for gumbo ... though I suppose we could always make an extra duck. What a tragedy.

[peebles.livejournal.com]

Or delicious. I'll eat anything delicious.

[nonelvis]

I usually only have one limit there (veal), but otherwise, I'm right there with you.

[fonticulus.livejournal.com]

If you made two ducks, you'd definitely have enough fat for confit. Everyone wins! Except the mean goose-raping ducks, but that's their problem.

[elliptic-eye.livejournal.com]

I am relieved to see by your icon that I am not the only one who, after too many years in fandom, supplied entirely the wrong answer to the post header before sanity kicked in.

[nonelvis]

You realize you're now obligated to write Captain John/Duck, don't you?

[elliptic-eye.livejournal.com]

You realize that now I'll have to do it just to see if I can (http://elliptic-eye.livejournal.com/139672.html), right?

[nonelvis]

I have no idea who those characters are, but that was quite well-written, and even amusing. For bestiality fic, that is.*

*Not that I have any idea what other bestiality fic is like.**

**Okay, except for Jack/Myfanwy, but that was just once, OKAY?***

***See you in the special Hell.

[prof-pangaea.livejournal.com]

this could work really well, actually, if it's captain jack/howard the duck. panini probably owns the UK rights to howard and they could do a comic crossover!

[nonelvis]

OMG snarky, cigar-chewing man/duck love through outer space! Why doesn't this exist yet?