Saturday, December 25, 2010

Preparing and Deboning Duck (Christmas Dinner)

This is first step in preparing our Christmas dinner.
I used to roast whole duck for Christmas (goose is more traditional but for 2 people terrible waste) but lately I have realized, as I mentioned on Duck Breast blog, that by the time legs are tender the breasts are overcooked. There is no comparison whatsoever to chicken breast which needs lots of seasoning to taste anything whereas duck breast needs just salt and pepper.
Anyway, ducks are dressed, the bones are roasting for incredibly tasty duck soup and fat is being rendered in separate pan next to pan with bones at 350 °F for 3 hours. Tomorrow morning I’ll start the duck stock and in afternoon I’ll be roasting the duck legs and serve them with sautéed red cabbage and steamed dumplings.
Four legs will be brined overnight and roasted tomorrow and breasts will be vacuum packed and flash frozen.

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