Nov 28, 2008

Thanksgiving Duck

I made duck yesterday. I followed Sarah Moulton's recipe for "Best Roast Duck." I must admit it came out very tender and juicy.

I also made Sweet Potato Pie (Emeril recipe) for the first time ever. It tastes just like pumpkin pie, but far easier to make from fresh ingredients. I'm smitten with sweet potatoes, these humble but tasty tubers. It's another food source that was woefully absent from my childhood.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, duck tastes so good, especially the duck skin. But difficult to cook, is it not, with all the fat and draining that goes on? Your stuffing looks perfect, nice crust on top.

(And being the famous botanist I now am, I can tell you the sweet potato is a root rather than a tuber, as a tuber is actually a modified stem. That's ok, no charge.)

Vanda said...

Well, the tric of this recipe is that instead of just shoving the duck in the over, you first simmer in stock for 45 minutes. I have no clue what would be the gastronomical term for this process. Maybe you can tell me? The result is that the duck is less fatty.

Thanks for the botanical correction, though it completely ruins my prose. "Tasty tuber" has a nice ring to it.

Anonymous said...

I, by the way, used the Martha Stewart recipe for turkey, including the two-day dry brine, and multiple saucepans going at once on stovetop for the 450-roasting, the 350-roasting, the every 30 minute basting. Guess what? At the end of the day, it tasted like turkey!

Vanda said...

I don't have the moral fortitude to undertake something like that.

Patrizzi Intergarlictica said...

Kudos to you. It's so hard to search for duck recipes.

I had have the easiest and most delicious method for turkey. Roast at 275 degrees for twice the time the chart says, covered, last hour brown the top with a torch or broiler. Transfer to another pan, dump the juices over the entire thing (which creates a shiny glaze)-then make the gravy. the end

Patrizzi Intergarlictica said...

No peeking or basting.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of slow cooking, I celebrate the pig twice a year. It's a 10-hour roast of a boston butt at 250 degrees. The meat melts, just melts.

Vanda said...

I had deep fried turkey last year. I never had turkducken.

Patrizzi Intergarlictica said...

Where does one find a Boston butt outside of Boston?

Anonymous said...

Probably ugliest name ever attached to a cut of meat. I'm embarrassed just talking to the butcher. And it's actually a shoulder

Anonymous said...

But did you have deep fried cajun blackened turkey? I don't know how they did it but they managed to infuse every molecule in that bird with cajun spices. Couldn't give it away. Not to sound completely ungrateful, the stuffing was excellent.

Vanda said...

PA, no I haven't, but it must be tasty. Southern cooking is big on flavor. I think the secret ingredient is lard.

Petrea Burchard said...

Yummy. Susan C would know the gastronomical term for all that duck-simmering.

You guys go to so much trouble! I love good food, but I've had so many kitchen disasters I think if Thanksgiving dinner were held at my house it would either be pasta or pot luck.