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How to bone a duck neck


bleudauvergne

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Leave it to French Saveurs to publish a recipe where the first ingredient is

4 deboned duck necks

Since they cost 70 cents a kilo at the volailler I think there's no harm in attempting this recipe, which I will post here if I can get past this one hurdle of how is the proper or best way to bone a duck neck.

Does anyone have any tips? Does this mean I just slip the entire fleshy part out from the skin and use the skin or do I open it out and is there a way to approach this to preserve some meat all around? The recipe is for Cous de canard farcis au risotto de roquette. You make a stuffing from a prepared risotto and meat from cuisses confit, then slowly braise. I use duck necks weekly for bouillon, but have never tried to bone one...

Is this just typical French Saveurs silliness or can I debone a duck neck?

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I read the first line of this topic, and thought....wait a minute, Lucy figured out a way to bone a duck neck?? :laugh::laugh: The next question is: why???

If it is to become a stuffing, what if you gently braise the necks first and then remove the flesh? Guess it depends on how the full recipe is written.

Oh. Do take photos. Lots!!! :laugh::laugh:

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It's for actually stuffing the duck neck, as in serving a dish called 'stuffed duck necks'. I recently stuffed rabbit saddles, which was fun and in which I had them all flattened out, so duck necks are a nice progression on this theme. I do think that parboiling might acutally be a good idea to heat up the skin and connective tissue to allow me to more easily remove the inside without damaging the skin. I am supposing they want a pouch but at the same time I could also imagine creating little paupiettes with a flattened opened duck neck. Time to get cooking!

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Do they mean you to use the skin from the neck to hold the stuffing?

I remember a recipe from the River Cottage TV series where the skin from a goose's neck was stuffed with various bits of goose (including meat from the neck) to make a big sausage. I think it was then cooked in goose fat.

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In the interest of furthering eG knowledge, I went to the market and bought a duck, with it's head still on. There is no way you can bone that neck, and more importantly, not enough of a reason to. But, the neck is certainly a very nice size to stuff with just about anything.

I think some super soft duck meat, maybe confit meat, with crisped neck skin would pretty much be divine. Or else some duck meat that had been braised in some sort of Moroccan spice combination and then placed inside the neck skin. Or... can you tell I'm hungry???? :blink:

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I think the point is that you roll the neck skin off, cutting around it. The neck meat itself I'm not sure you can do much with unless you confit or braise them and then remove the meat with your fingers. You then use the neck as a sausage skin.

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Hi,

My experience has been to pull the neck bone from the skin. Poach it and pull the meat to add to the stuffing. after stuffing and sewing the ends the neck was confit'd. I would just grab the neck bone and pull it, basically turning the skin inside out like a sock. We served it as an amuse bouche. Good Luck!

Edited by Timh (log)
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Asking my father and his buddy about this now - the two men are panting :unsure:. They both grew up with helzel - like kishka, the skin was stuffed with breadcrumbs and griebenz (chicken cracklin') and maybe vegetables :huh: . Then it was roasted along with the chicken, duck or goose.

They both want it. Now.

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gallery_15176_15_68842.jpg

These are the necks + 4 legs and a few pots of duck fat for confit .

I guess the first thing I'll have to do is burn off the remaining feathers. Oh la la. :blink:

Here goes!

I will be finishing this recipe tomorrow if anyone wants to cook along. Here's the recipe ingredients:

4 deboned duck necks

2 legs duck confit (I will actually most likely be using some previously confitted legs)

1 egg

200g. aborio rice

2 shallots

1 liter of poultry bouillon

15cl of white wine

150g. arugula

80g. grated fresh parmesean + 1 T. for the oven cooking

salt & pepper

Tonight I will experiment and find the best way to bone a duck neck.

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Pam & Melissa, if you have a recipe for this breadcrumb stuffing or can work up some facsilime of one based on drooling spectators memories, I would love to prepare that one too. Never can have too many duck neck recipes s'what I'll probably always say once I have this one under my belt. And it looks like Timh has already prepared a stuffed duck neck dish served as an amuse at his resto.

From the (translated) recipe, step 6: "Stuff the necks with the risotto and put them into a big ceramic dish..."

So Tim, dear, Do I stuff this thing really full or do I risk it bursting? Should I definitely sew it or can I fold the edges under?

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I don't have a recipe myself (just another thing somebody should have watched my grandmother make..).

There are several listed here or here's one.

(the difference between kishka and helzel is the kishka stuffed cow intestine, the helzel is stuffed in poultry neck skin)

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Lucy, after sewing one end, stuff it well, create an even shape. You can prick the 'sausage' with a needle if your concerned with bursting, but the skin is rather flexible in a moist cooking environment. If the rice is precooked, there shouldn't be that much expansion. We used brunoise of pain de mie as the binder(basically the same). You should definitely sew it, or at least skewer the ends with a toothpick or skewer, maintaining a tight roll will insure even cooking and a unifirm shape. You rock!!

edited to add: you might get by by tying the ends with butchers twine also.

Edited by Timh (log)
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Never can have too many duck neck recipes s'what I'll probably always say once I have this one under my belt. 

I've found two recipes and descriptions in the internet about "cou d'oie farci" this one or That one

Cou du canard farci can be made in the same manner. May be the neck of a duck is a little bit shorter than a goose neck. So you have to reduce the quantities.

Edited by legourmet (log)

H.B. aka "Legourmet"

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Come to think of it, Paula Wolfert's Cooking of SW France also has a recipe, similar to the 2 french ones you post, legourmet, using aromatics, pork and Armagnac. The recipe also includes leftover foie gras terrine, in addition to fresh duck leg meat, and is immersed in fat to cook. She also gives instructions on how to put it up. Hmmm. :rolleyes:

OK. In no particular order, we have:

The traditional French way, originating as a goose neck recipe, which seems to be like an all meat sausage, with pork and very little if no starch filler, slow cooked, immersed in duck fat.

We've got the French Saveurs recipe with risotto, or Timh's pain de mie bound amuse, incorporating duck meat and various aromatics, braised and basted for its cooking time.

There is the traditional helzel, originally for chicken necks, which uses matzo meal and flour as a binder and no meat aside from the poultry neck skin. I see from googled reminiscences that it's normally done with chicken and put in soup. I think chicken necks would be more tender and smaller, better for soup fare. Now that would be the ultimate dumpling! I wonder if I could replace the matzo meal with breadcrumbs, since the drooling spectators mention breadcrumbs...

I'm going to try the risotto one today mainly because it's rather cheap and I have everything on hand. I will also do Paula's once I have some foie gras and get a refill on my armagnac and post that to the cookbook topic we already have going. There's also the one in brioche from the first edition of that book whch sounds divine. After cooking the traditional french way as above, you remove the skin and then bake it in a brioche.

Any other ideas and recipes you all have, even ones that we develop as we go along would be wonderful to see.

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PeterH, please also tell me more about the goose you saw on the documentary.  It sounds intriguing.   :rolleyes:

I'll have a look when I get home tonight - I think that I've got the episode recorded. It was a Christmas special where the presenter (Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall) cooked a goose in several ways. Confited the legs, stuffed the neck and roasted the breast. From what I remember it was pretty much like the trad French method in your post above.

Incidentally, I just searched for the recipe on the net and found a glossary of french food terms. It's here if anyone is interested.

Edited by Peter H (log)
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