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TDG: Duck Carcass Stolen; Perp Walks


Fat Guy

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A tale of culinary thievery, by Mandy Erickson in The Daily Gullet.

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Be sure to check The Daily Gullet every weekday for news, articles, contest results, hot topics, announcements, and more.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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A delicious, divinely decadent, delectable dish you have shared with us here, Mandy! :biggrin:

Thank you for this article .. it has only served to whet my already ravenous appetite for all things Magret!! :biggrin:

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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Mandy -

I LOVE what you've done here. What a wonderful way to share a recipe. Thank you so much for that. You have a way with words, I love the "The Ericksons are cooking, and all is well with the world" quote. Something about it made my world a better place, too.

I am going to do this canard a l'orange right away.

I remember the last time I cooked duck legs, (it was just the legs, mind you, not the whole duck like in your recipe on TDG) I wasn't able to find many recipes - most probably due to the toughness you refer to in your piece. I did find one really great one in Paula Wolfert's Cooking of Southwest France, which calls for simmering them in red wine over a period of three days. It was a success.

-Lucy

Edited by bleudauvergne (log)
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Thank you for this article .. it has only served to whet my already ravenous appetite for all things Magret!! :biggrin:

Considering that it started out as a mystery, shouldn't that read: Maigret??

aagggggghhh!! bested again by the best brain in the business, Suzanne, for whom wordplay is a kind of foreplay .... :rolleyes:

Now, back to the duck with all the trimmings .... :biggrin:

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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A good story.

I side with the thief (sort of). I have been doing the same thing with turkey carcasses for years. The only difference is that I always make sure that the original owner of the carcass gets some of the gumbo. No one ever seems to mind. :laugh:

Brooks Hamaker, aka "Mayhaw Man"

There's a train everyday, leaving either way...

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I love duck.

Thanks for sharing your wonderful story.

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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The only slightly unsettling part is when the head pops up out of the stockpot.  :shock:

Reminds me of Varmint's story about the pig in his bathtub, brining, and the rest of his story is now legend ... :rolleyes:

the thread

Edited by Gifted Gourmet (log)

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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Usually I enjoy reading these features but... is it just me, or did anyone else think this one was ever so slightly precious?

Vikram

Actually I thought it sentimentallly sweet and a completely authentic way in which to present a recipe ...

When the "hard edge" of cynicism rubs up against the "soft pleasures" of nostalgia, it may appear precious ..

in this world of "hard edges", give me

a duck, roasted, and a sugary orange sauce. The fatty, gamy meat balances the sweetness of the sauce, and the entire dish is a guilty pleasure
any day ... :biggrin:

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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Thank you for your "validation" of my sentiments on this duck tale .... :biggrin:

I so love an "economy of words", bleudauvergne, and you have done so succinctly and logically.... merci de dire ceci!!

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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I thought this story was very well written and different. I just can't believe anyone would walk off with someone's carcass during dessert! :shock: I think he knew he was doing something evil because he snuck around and did it when no one was looking. Then he came up with that stupid excuse of leftovers belong to everyone. SIGH. :hmmm: I have gotten many turkey carcasses at church dinners. No one else would make stock, and I knew how to carve turkeys...so that was my reward. :biggrin: Sometimes it was nice to be the only culinista around.

it just makes me want to sit down and eat a bag of sugar chased down by a bag of flour.

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  • 3 weeks later...

i go through this left over thing all the time...well, maybe its a little different....husband and i go to dinner...i bring home doggie bag and it goes into the fridge. i believe it's mine. he seems to believe if its in the fridge its open game. he now only has one hand and it only has 3 remining fingers remaining but still dosen't get it. please tell me i am correct on this

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i go through this left over thing all the time...well, maybe its a little different....husband and i go to dinner...i bring home doggie bag and it goes into the fridge. i believe it's mine. he seems to believe if its in the fridge its open game. he now only has one hand and it only has 3 remining fingers remaining but still dosen't get it. please tell me i am correct on this

My solution when married to my ex, many years ago (plus the horde of locusts, i.e., his three kids), was to have two refrigerators. One had a lock on it, just like the freezer.

One fridge was open to all, anything it contained could be consumed. The locked fridge was MINE! If I put something in there it had better be there when I needed it.

The locks were necessary because the kids would eat anything, including frozen cookie dough.

Now I live alone but still have the lock on the freezer because I do have a housekeeper and she knows what I have in there. I am generous but no one is going to walk off with any of my special items.

To get back to the topic. I cook a lot of duck, three this past weekend. If it is an old duck, usually can tell the difference by how much the muscle has retracted from the keel or breastbone, I simply roast it to render the fat out because there is nothing better than duck fat for frying potatoes and other goodies. Then I use the carcass for duck stock. I used to simply cook it in a stockpot but a couple of years ago I began making it in a pressure cooker. I found an 8-quart electric Farberware one that works beautifully. The bones soften to the point that I can put everything through a food mill, then strain again through a double mesh chinoise.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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Slap me and call me ignorant, but I had no idea there was such a thing as an electric pressure cooker...how would you compare it to the stovetop variety??

For one thing it is a lot smaller than my regular one which is a canning pressure cooker, 30 quart.

Big monster I have had for about 40 years.

It has all the new safety features on it that will keep it from blowing up.

It is programmable.

I read several reviews before I bought it. I read between the lines, people liked how it worked but had some problems which I attributed to failure to clean it properly after each use.

If it is cared for as it should be then it works just fine. I have used it numerous times with excellent results.

The pricing is variable. The discount price at most places is 199.00, however I bought mine at a "factory" outlet store for 129.00 MSRP is 285.00

However I recently saw it on the MSN.shopping "Smart Bargains" on sale for 119.00 A better buy than I got.

It is identical to the Russell Hobbs pressure cooker which sells for 177.00 (discount price) to 199.00, supposedly a discount price.

It is a 1500 watt appliance so has plenty of power.

If you think you will use it enought to make it worthwhile, it is a bargain. I gave one to a friend's daughter for a wedding present because she wanted to make her own baby food. She had twins and uses it constantly.

This is probably a lot more information than you want or need, but I like to be thorough.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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On re-reading the article I noticed the mention of the duck fat vaporizing and the problems attendant.

I place my roasting pan on a sheet pan and place one of the racks near the top of the oven and from that suspend a "tent" of aluminum foil with the ends resting on the sheet pan near the edges.

To fasten the center of the tent to the upper rack and to the edges of the sheet pan I use bindery clips, which I get by the dozen because they come in various sizes and have become an invaluable help in the kitchen.

The open "tent" directs the fat back down to the sheet pan where it can be collected.

I do not let the foil come near the duck because it would adhere, tear the skin when removed and ruin the presentation. This works fine in my convection oven (Blodgett) that has a powerful fan. The tent is open at the back and the front so does not interfere with the heat circulation.

If you have an oven door that does not seal well, you can get a high temperature silicone sealant (good to 700 degrees) and run a bead around the opening. Unless you have an oven exhaust that vents into the kitchen, this should solve problems with smoke/fat escaping from the oven.

I often prepare Sara Moulton's "Blasted Chicken" and use this same method. Try it once, see if it works for you.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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