Smoked Duck Fat

Thought I would share a recent discovery:

I generally keep a smoked duck breast or two around for when I make the occasional "velcro" chef salad; usually for when I'm feeling pretty lazy and need to empty out the veggie bin to use things that are about to go bad (also a good excuse to make croûtons with old bread). Paulina Meat Market sells these smoked duck breasts packaged individually, and they're delicious.

The only issue with the duck breasts is the thick layer of fat under the skin--Paulina doesn't render it off, and it's too much for a cold salad. Basically, it needs to come off for this particular application.

Herein lies the beautiful discovery.

I'm in the habit of cooking with duck fat for special occasions (available pre-packaged at Fox and Obel and Paulina), but have now upgraded to something even better: smoked duck fat.

the skin and fat of the smoked breast peels off the meat easily. dicing up the skin and fat layer of 1 breast and cooking it in a non-stick pan over medium heat leaves you with two wonderful treats: 1) yummy duck skin "cracklings" (great sprinkled over the salad) and 2) anywhere from a 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of smoke infused duck fat.

My skillet potatoes, in particular, have benefited immensely from this, not to mention everything else I've been cooking these past few weeks. Arteries be dammed.

This stuff is pure gold. Highly recommend it. It adds just a hint of smokiness and isn't overpowering at all.

Brilliant! Thanks for the technique, which I will definitely steal from you.

MrBarossa wrote:Thought I would share a recent discovery:
The only issue with the duck breasts is the thick layer of fat under the skin--Paulina doesn't render it off

MrBarossa,

You've been watching too much top chef!

Paulina Market's smoked duck breasts are fatty beneath the skin, wonderfully fatty, because they're duck, not from any improper rendering technique! You're talking master German butchers, not sloppy cooks.

Slowly cooking a raw duck breast skin side down renders away a great deal of the fat beneath the skin of a duck breast, leaving just crisp skin and meat. It's a technique that every good saute cook knows.

Those lovely Paulina market smoked duck breasts have a velvety fat layer beneath the skin, which to me is every bit as tasty as the fat surrounding: a)a smoked ham like Berger's or even a cheap grocery store ham, b)Smithfield ham, c)Proscuitto di Parma, or d) Jamon Iberico, and is very much meant to be there.

But congratulations on finding a clever and very frugal trick, especially at the $8-9 or so price that Paulina charges. (Haven't bought one in a while, is that an accurate price?)

Evil Ronnie wrote:

MrBarossa wrote:Thought I would share a recent discovery:
The only issue with the duck breasts is the thick layer of fat under the skin--Paulina doesn't render it off

MrBarossa,

You've been watching too much top chef!

Paulina Market's smoked duck breasts are fatty beneath the skin, wonderfully fatty, because they're duck, not from any improper rendering technique! You're talking master German butchers, not sloppy cooks.

Slowly cooking a raw duck breast skin side down renders away a great deal of the fat beneath the skin of a duck breast, leaving just crisp skin and meat. It's a technique that every good saute cook knows.

Those lovely Paulina market smoked duck breasts have a velvety fat layer beneath the skin, which to me is every bit as tasty as the fat surrounding: a)a smoked ham like Berger's or even a cheap grocery store ham, b)Smithfield ham, c)Proscuitto di Parma, or d) Jamon Iberico, and is very much meant to be there.

But congratulations on finding a clever and very frugal trick, especially at the $8-9 or so price that Paulina charges. (Haven't bought one in a while, is that an accurate price?)

Ronnie:

I think you may have misunderstood what I meant to convey by describing the layer of fat. I'm well acquainted with it (and I didn't mean to suggest people who read LTH aren't), and I don't attribute it to any sloppiness on Paulina's part (I hold them in the highest regard). I usually cook duck once a month or so, and like you, I am after how the fat plays with the meat and skin as much as anything (well, that and making duck stock, which goes into a lot of what I cook).

What I was getting at, (if inarticulately) is Paulia's smoking process is clearly not done at a temperature that causes much, if any, fat to cook off. You get a huge yield of fat from one of these breasts. I recognize that's not wrong--the point, I guess, is that I didn't think it was common knowledge that the process Paulina uses on their smoked duck breast was a cold smoke that did not render most of the fat under the breast. When I do my own smoking it's usually a hot smoke that will render a good deal of fat, regardless of what I'm cooking. Given what Paulina does with their other smoked products like bacon, though, perhaps the cold smoke shouldn't be news to anyone.

As for my comment about "too much" of it, basically if you use the cold breast by cubing the meat, which is what I was after in the salad, the fat isn't nearly as pleasant as it is when you serve duck breast pan seared (think eating lumps of cold butter or, more appropriately, thick cut pieces of Proscuitto).

That said, I agree with what you said about comparing the texture to Proscuitto di Parma/Jamon Iberico. Like those meats, though, the key is thin slicing if you're going to have it cold, which I haven't really tried, but like the idea of.

Your estimate on price is about right. In my mind, its well worth it.

MrBarossa:

I too am familiar with the desirable layer of fat on a duck breast, but also like you - I would not necessarily have expected a smoked breast to yield so much of it. And though I haven't tried it, I could see a little of that smoked duck fat going a long way as a flavoring agent in many dishes, so thank you again for your very helpful (to me, at least) report.

Kennyz