advice needed for cooking Moulard Duck Breasts

I'm cooking 10 - 1LB Moulard Duck Breasts tonight for a group of winos my
plan is to start the room temp cross-hatched, S&P'ed breast fat side down in
cold pans over medium (toward low) heat. but I have no clue how long it might take to
render much of the fat & brown/crisp up the skin and get the meat to just over rare.
I figure I'll flip them for just a bit at the end.

Some questions:

Should I remove the fat as it collects? (I'll be saving it here or at the end of cooking...)
Baise the breast with the fat?

Any advice?

The night I was a "guest chef" at Charlie Trotters, years ago, I helped one of the guys cook duck breasts similar to how you described. We poured off the fat periodically.

Mel-
I cook the moulard breasts all the time. Are yours d'artagnan (who now sells canadian ones) or hudson valley foie gras? They are pretty similar, though the canadian ones seem a bit firmer. I always do them on the grill. You have to have a weber-type grill where you can cut off the air supply to keep them from flaming up. I put them scored fat side down directly over hot coals, and put on the lid with all vents just cracked open. I do them maybe 2-3 minutes (renders maybe 1/2 the fat and crisps it, then flip them over and basically do a fairly high temp smoke for the other side, maybe 10 minutes depending on how rare you want them. If there is still too much fat, you can flip them back over at the end. This will trash your grill, but you can burn off the fat at the end. Your method will give you a more delicate, duck flavor, which may go better with some wines than the smoky flavor mine get (I like the flavor from the fat smoldering on the coals mixing with the wood smoke, but I am sure purists wouldnt approve). Be careful to not cook off too much fat...I find that a decent layer of soft fat between the crisp outside and the meat makes for the best flavor and mouthfeel. I think that the traditional method is to crisp the skin/render fat, and then flip them and put them in a medium oven until done, maybe another 10-15 minutes. Good Luck

-Will

I've found that its essential when roasting duck breasts to pour off enough of the fat to keep the skin uncovered during cooking, otherwise the skin seems to disintegrate when doing a low/slow cook & can't be crisped later. I turn the heat up to 425 for the last 5 plus minutes to crisp up the skin & sometimes brush a little soy/honey glaze onto the skin to help it crisp up.

Mel,

Here is one of my favorite recipes courtesy of the lovely and talented RevrendAndy. I've made this dozens of times over the past 20-years.

Duck Magrets
Broiled Duck Breasts

1 1/2 teaspoons shallots, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 teaspoon bay leaves, crumbled
1/4 teaspoon thyme leaves, crumbled
12 black peppercorns, lightly crushed
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced

black pepper, freshly ground

1. 1 day before serving, trim off all excess fat from the duck breast. In a noncorrodible bowl combine the salt, shallots, parsley, bay leaf, thyme, peppercorns, and garlic.

2. Roll the duck breasts in the mixture and stack them, skin side down, in the bowl. Cover bowl with a towel or plastic wrap and let stand, refrigerated, 12-24 hours, turning breasts over once.

3. 30 minutes before serving, wipe or rinse the duck breass to remove excess seasonings and any liquid that may have exuded during the marinating time. Discard marinade and allow breasts to come to room temperature. Pat ducks dry.

4. To broil*, set the broiler rack about 4 inches from heat. Score the skin and place duck breasts skin side down on broiler rack.

5. 8 or 9 minutes before serving, broil 1 minute in order to sear flesh side and melt excess skin-side fat from reflected heat. Turn breasts over and broil about 4 minutes longer. Breasts will "tighten up" and become thicker. With thumb and middle finger, pinch meat from under skin end to flesh side to test for doneness. If the flesh springs back quickly it is rare; if there is some "give" it is medium.

6. Transfer breasts to a carving board and let rest 1-2 minutes. To serve, thinly slice meat crosswise diagonally. Sprinkle with freshly ground pepper, then fan each magret out on an individual heated serving plate. Serve at once.

* I typically grill the duck breasts over coals.

Thanks Gary but you lost me at

trim off all excess fat from the duck breast

There is no excess fat on a duck breast!

Gary's (rev Andy's) recipe sounds great. Keep in mind that the moulard breasts are about half again as thick as regular breasts due to the foie gras fattening diet that the ducks eat. they will take a bit longer to cook unless you want duck sushi. I did have duck tartar at Inovasi once, and it was very good.

-Will

Roasting and pan searing a large duck breast are two different techniques. One (searing) will give a nice crispy skin but with plenty of fat still left but the breast should be medium rare, roasting will remove the fat but the breast must be cooked much longer otherwise it will be tough. Score as you indicated, crisp skin side down and sear until you reach a little before your degree of doneness. Rest for 10 minutes as the breasts will still cook, collect juices and make a pan sauce.
You cannot cook off the all the fat and still have rare duck breasts. Good luck.-Dick

To me the simpler, the better: I preheat the oven at 375 degrees.
I make sure the duck breasts are patted dry. I usually buy Maple Leaf brand previously frozen breasts from Indiana, just a little over 1/2 Lb per half breast but I do not know what type of duck it is.
With a sharp butcher knife I make 4 small diagonal crisscrossed incisions in the skin after removing the excess skin from the edges and the membrane and little white sinew on top of the meat side.
Then I rub the half breasts with coarsely ground black peppercorns and sea salt.
I preheat my cast-iron skillet until it is very hot on the gas-burning stove.
I add a tsp of olive oil and sear the breasts at medium-high heat skin skin down for about 3 minutes , then I reduce the heat and do the same on the meat side for 2 more minutes.
I sponge off 85% of the rendered fat out of the skillet with paper towels.
The I put the skillet in the oven skin-up and cook the breast for 14 minutes at 375.

I take the skillet off the oven, remove a lttle bit more of the fat, put the breast on a hot plate then pour 1/3 cup of grenache-based red Rhone wine or good Pinot noir and 1Tbs of a good red wine or raspberry vinegar to deglaze the cooking juices. Boil 2 or 3 minutes to reduce.
Slice the breasts on a serving platter or plates and drizzle the reduced sauce over them.
Some people like to add some creme fraiche to the reduced wine sauce in the skillet to finish the sauce.

Serve with small red boiled potatoes.

Turned out OK....



thanks for the advice!

Those look great. Thanks for starting a nice thread - I'll have to try these different techniques.

I presume there were noticeable differences in the cooking time and crust between the stainless steel and non-stick pans.

mhill95149 wrote:Turned out OK....

Beter than ok from the pictures! Crisp skin, luxurious rosy interior, delectable, a word I don't often use, comes to mind.

Darren72 wrote:Those look great. Thanks for starting a nice thread - I'll have to try these different techniques.

I presume there were noticeable differences in the cooking time and crust between the stainless steel and non-stick pans.

Not as much as I was thinking there would be....
I did a bit of adjusting of the flame based on the pans and the internal temps taken in the middle of cooking
but over all they were cooked the same amount of time.
These ended up holding for about 20 min longer then I had expected but everything was still nice and pink to red.

Mel-
They look great. Looks like the perfect fat layer. How long did they take, and what was the internal temp?

Thanks, Will

WillG wrote:Mel-
They look great. Looks like the perfect fat layer. How long did they take, and what was the internal temp?

Thanks, Will

Right around 30 min on medium low heat I then I cranked it for 4 min or so

My thermapen was reading from 115˚ to 125˚ when I yanked them.