Yeah, yeah, it’s been a while. Let’s just move past that and get to the food.
Despite having grown up on Long Island, I don’t think I actually ever had duck until I moved to Florida. Go figure. It’s one of my favorite meats. Every time I eat it, I’m always left amazed at just how different the taste is from chicken. To me, it seems like it would be similar. Maybe it’s just me. It’s OK; it usually is.
It looks like chicken, but it tastes so much better.
When I saw that the book had a recipe for duck, I was really excited to try it. Unfortunately, duck is apparently really hard to come by in Orlando, FL. Our local grocery didn’t have it. I checked one of the places that offers a lot of different meats (they’re not really a true butcher, but close) – they didn’t have it. Not even Whole Foods had it – that really surprised me. I was wondering if I was going to have to break down and go to the Asian district of town. I don’t have a problem going there, but we (and everyone we know) is a little skittish about buying fresh foods there.
Then one day, while walking through the local grocery, I just happened to look down at the pile of frozen chickens and turkeys – and there happened to be a few ducks. I think it must have been because it was the holiday season. Whatever the reason – I snapped it up and threw it into our freezer. It wasn’t until just recently that I’ve had time AND inclination to sit down and make Alton Brown’s Mighty Duck (the book just calls it “Duck”)
The brine is pretty standard: juice, salt, garlic and some seasoning
After a few hours in a brine, the recipe calls for a two stage cooking process. The liquid for the brine is a pineapple/orange juice. I’ve never totally understood why orange is the standard flavoring for duck (the duck I bought even included an orange sauce packet), but it works. First, you steam the duck for 45 minutes. Between the brine and the steaming, you’re left with a mostly cooked and still very moist/juicy duck. Steaming it also means that the excess fat is drained away so it’s not sitting and cooking in its juices.
Everyone loves a good steam bath.
While it steams, you prep a cast iron pan for the searing portion. Moist duck is great – but anyone who has ever eaten duck will tell you that the best part is the skin. Hell, you can keep the meat and just give me the skin and I’d probably be happy. Of course, the skin MUST be crispy. It’s just a rule.
Duck without a crisp skin can't really be called "Duck"
Since I’ve had better luck following the videos/episodes a little closer than the book, I decided to do that here. The book says to put the duck pieces skin side down in the heated skillet and bake for about 15-17 minutes flipping once. The episode and website instruct to cook the legs and thighs first for about 10 minutes, flip them and add the breasts and cook for another 7 minutes.
You need something more than just meat, even if it's duck.
After removing the duck to cool, you use the fat in the skillet to cook some greens to go with the duck. The book calls for chard or kale. Unfortunately, there was no chard available at the grocery, so I went with kale. I hadn’t eaten kale since I was a teenager, and I wasn’t a big fan of it back then. Hopefully, the duck fat would change that. Add the kale and some shallots to the skillet and let it all wilt down – finishing it off with some balsamic vinegar.
So, how did it all turn out?
The duck was delicious. Seriously – if I can find duck again, I’m making this again. I would change one thing though – I’d flip the 7 and 10 minute measurements. The skin on the legs and thighs was perfectly crisp and the meat was cooked perfectly, but the skin on the breasts just wasn’t crispy enough. The breast meat itself was perfect, but the skin just wasn’t quite there. I thought about cooking it longer to crisp the skin further, but I feared overcooking the meat. So, to recap: legs and thighs in, skin side down, cook for 7 minutes; add the breasts skin side down, flip the legs and thighs, cook for 10 minutes.
The kale was better than I expected it to be, but it just didn’t wilt enough for my taste. I suspect chard would work a lot better.
Alton Brown Mighty Duck Rating:Rating: 
This duck is almost perfect. It's more perfect once it's in my belly.
