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How to bone a duck neck


bleudauvergne

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I have boned the necks, and hereby share the pertinent details.

1) Don't try and singe any remaining small down from the necks by using a candle. The wax creates black smoke that sticks to the skin and stains it. I lost a duck neck that way, but still used it as practice for removing the skin. I found that you can pluck the last remaining down with tweezers quite nicely (thank you Hathor for planting that seed).

2) Begin at the big end. The inside is attached to the skin with filmy clear connective tissue that snips easily with scissors. Snip off any outer bones. On one side, there will be a cluster of fatty material and glands that are attached to the inside of the skin of the neck and are best snipped carefully between that and the skin.

3) On the other side, the esophagus is attached to the inner muscular shaft and the skin. Clip only the skin side only, leaving the tube attached to the shaft, and fold the skin back all around, little by little, snipping carefully all around, until you have exposed enough of the inner shaft to hold it firmy in one hand.

4) Take the inner part in one hand, the outer part in the other, and pull firmly but not too forcefully, and release the inner part from the skin. As desribed by MobyP & others, it turns inside out and you just pull it off like a sock.

5) Turn it back to the right side out and pull off any down or quills that were missed by the volailler. Voila. These are ready.

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Perusing my Austrian and Hungarian cookbooks I found a few traditional stuffings for goose necks:

Austria: mincd lean pork, chesnuts and sauteed mushrooms (typically made when roasting a whole goose which is itself not stuffed or else very simple with apples. The stuffed neck is added in half way through the roasting time)

Hungary: mix together onions sauteed in goose fat, roll saoked in milk and then squeezed dry, and diced goose meat. Add an egg, s&p and paprika and run through a meat grinder twice at the fine setting. Finely chop up goose liver and add to the mix. Cook slowly in goose fat in a cover pan; remove lid for the last 10 min or so to brown. Serve hot or cold, as an appetizer or as luncheon dish.

variation: Can use half grown veal or pork and 1/2 goose meat. Procure goose meat from scraps or use chicken.

Thanks for sharing your experience, bleudauvergne! I had coincidentally been looking at roast goose recipes for a potential dinner party, but may not have had the wherewhithal to try stuffing the neck without this thread. It sounds like a delicious appetizer. Eager to see your finished dish.

Edited by ludja (log)

"Under the dusty almond trees, ... stalls were set up which sold banana liquor, rolls, blood puddings, chopped fried meat, meat pies, sausage, yucca breads, crullers, buns, corn breads, puff pastes, longanizas, tripes, coconut nougats, rum toddies, along with all sorts of trifles, gewgaws, trinkets, and knickknacks, and cockfights and lottery tickets."

-- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1962 "Big Mama's Funeral"

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I wonder if I could replace the matzo meal with breadcrumbs, since the drooling spectators mention breadcrumbs...

"dad, did Baba make her helzel with matzo meal?"

Emphatic shaking of the head - no.

"breadcrumbs?"

Emphatic nodding of the head - yes.

:wink:

He also says that she usually made it with chicken, because they were more available. But, he added, duck was better.

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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.

Lucy, I've looked at the episode again and the technique is pretty well covered in the preceding posts, with a couple of additional tips. To precis:

Roll the skin off the neck and trim excess fat off the inside (remember this was a goose not a duck. Marinate the skin in brandy to make it more flexible (apple brandy was used).

Make a stuffing from the cooked neck meat, heart and gizzards along with the raw liver, some carcass trimmings, sausage meat, diced apples, crushed juniper berrries, nutmeg, salt & pepper, breadcrumbs and a dash of red wine.

Sew up the head end of the neck and stuff, leaving some room for expansion. Sew up the open end when done.

Prick well to prevent bursting and simmer in goose fat for 90 mins.

It looked delicious - and I hope this helps!

Edited by Peter H (log)
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We would recieve our whole canards, I would remove the foie gras, then the sous would breakdown the rest. He then would give me the carcass and necks, I would scrape the carcass with a spoon to remove any bit of meat. I would then make a mixture of meat, pain de mie, lots of garlic and chopped parsley, heavy cream, and chopped fat, stuff them and them give them back to the sous to cook(along with the cleaned bones).

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I am a little late here, but I did test the recipe for Paula's book The Cooking of SW France and really like Russ said, removing the skin from the neck in one piece was quiet easy. The end result was delicious.

BTW, the easiest place in the US to find duck necks...er...with the ducks attached to them since they can be used too is at Asian markets.

E. Nassar
Houston, TX

My Blog
contact: enassar(AT)gmail(DOT)com

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Lucy, how long did it take you to bone the necks?

To skin all of the necks, it took about 15 minutes total, starting from the first clumsy try through to the last one. I did 6 total, discarding the first one due to the candle smoke, and sacraficing about half of one due to pulling too hard and breaking it. I suspect that if I am doing this again it will take about 10 mintutes to skin the 4 necks in the recipe.

Elie, tell us more about your experience!

Tonight I followed the recipe exactly as written. How can this recipe go wrong? The result was absolutely delicious. The bitter salad was exactly the perfect balance to the rich taste of the skin suffed with risotto. The ingredient list is no doubt a generous approximation, and results in way more stuffing than will fit in the necks. The technique is quite vague, so learning here and envisioning the logical way people might carry this recipe through to perfection given all of your examples helped me alot. I ended up cooking the necks 20 minutes longer than the time given in the recipe.

I did take pictures, but since I underestimated the time it would take, we ate rather late tonight, and I don't have time to put them up tonight.

Since I have much stuffing leftover, I also want to get some more necks and try it again tomorrow while we have natural daylight and make sure that I get some really good pics, and then I will post it with the full recipe with photos, and in the recipe gullet.

Yum yum, find some duck necks. :rolleyes:

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Boys. Boys. It's nothing like a foot and sock....

Definitely a foot and sock ... let's not go anywhere else! :rolleyes:

Edited by JasonZ (log)

JasonZ

Philadelphia, PA, USA and Sandwich, Kent, UK

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We would recieve our whole canards, I would remove the foie gras, then the sous would breakdown the rest. He then would give me the carcass and necks, I would scrape the carcass with a spoon to remove any bit of meat. I would then make a mixture of meat, pain de mie, lots of garlic and chopped parsley, heavy cream, and chopped fat, stuff them and them give them back to the sous to cook(along with the cleaned bones).

How was the dish described on the menu?

"Under the dusty almond trees, ... stalls were set up which sold banana liquor, rolls, blood puddings, chopped fried meat, meat pies, sausage, yucca breads, crullers, buns, corn breads, puff pastes, longanizas, tripes, coconut nougats, rum toddies, along with all sorts of trifles, gewgaws, trinkets, and knickknacks, and cockfights and lottery tickets."

-- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1962 "Big Mama's Funeral"

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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)

There may be one in "The Spice and Spirit of Jewish Cooking", Chabad's masterwork of Eastern Jewish recipes. I'll see if I can find it ... and if not, I think I know someone in Brooklyn who can give me the "real deal" ...

JasonZ

Philadelphia, PA, USA and Sandwich, Kent, UK

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I have boned the necks, and hereby share the pertinent details. 

2)  Begin at the big end.  The inside is attached to the skin with filmy clear connective tissue that snips easily with scissors.  Snip off any outer bones. On one side, there will be a cluster of fatty material and glands that are attached to the inside of the skin of the neck and are best snipped carefully between that and the skin.

3)  On the other side, the esophagus is attached to the inner muscular shaft and the skin.  Clip only the skin side only, leaving the tube attached to the shaft, and fold the skin back all around, little by little, snipping carefully all around,  until you have exposed enough of the inner shaft to hold it firmy in one hand. 

If you have a whole duck/chicken, you may want to take a tip from the Chinese, whose classic recipe for Peking Duck calls for making a small hole and passing a needle or small hollow tube into the neck, then insufflating. This forces the skin away from the subcutaneous tissue. You can then remove the head and the rest of the bird and you have the neck skin separated from the neck meat. If you want to be really showy, on one episode of Iron Chef America, Ming Tsai used an air compressor and needle to separate the duck skin in about 5 seconds -- but he was playing to the crowd. :raz:

Edited by JasonZ (log)

JasonZ

Philadelphia, PA, USA and Sandwich, Kent, UK

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We would recieve our whole canards, I would remove the foie gras, then the sous would breakdown the rest. He then would give me the carcass and necks, I would scrape the carcass with a spoon to remove any bit of meat. I would then make a mixture of meat, pain de mie, lots of garlic and chopped parsley, heavy cream, and chopped fat, stuff them and them give them back to the sous to cook(along with the cleaned bones).

How was the dish described on the menu?

I woud assume that since it was served as an amuse geule, it wasn't listed on the menu, nor would it even be named when serving it... Did you name it anyway?

Timh, was it served hot or cold?

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Cous de canard farcis au risotto de roquette – Stuffed duck necks with rocket risotto, a loose adaption from a recipe in edition no. 150 of Saveurs Magazine, by Jean-François Mallet

4 duck necks, whole, not deboned yet

2T. coarse sea salt

2 legs duck confit

1 egg

200g. or about ¾ cup Arborio rice (for risotto)

2 shallots

15 cl or one small glass of white wine, any kind

150 grams or about 1 quart loosely packed fresh leaves of rocket (arugula)

80 grams or about 1/3 cup of grated parmesean cheese

salt & pepper

- De-bone the duck necks, following my instructions. Liberally sprinkle the outside of the neck skin with salt and place in the refrigerator (can be done up to 48 hours in advance). Remove and discard the esophagus tubes and any glands, and put the neck meat and bones into a stock pot. Cover with water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat, as you would any poultry stock, and let the stock simmer for 1 to 2 hours. An idea for this would be to debone the necks and set the stock to cook in the afternoon, if you plan to serve this dish for dinner, and let it simmer very slowly throughout the afternoon.

- Remove as much duck fat as possible from the confited duck legs, and set the fat aside for later use. Remove and mince the meat from the two legs, and place it in a large mixing bowl where you will mix the stuffing. Add the parmesean.

- Prepare the Risotto: Peel and mince the shallots. Melt 1 tablespoon of the fat from the confit and sauté the shallots without browning until they begin to turn translucent. Add the Arborio rice and stir to coat with the duck fat. Once the risotto begins to turn clear, add the white wine and let it absorb into the rice.

- Ladle the duck stock directly into the risotto, filling it to just cover the rice, and let it cook without stirring it, absorbing the stock. After adding stock about 4 times, the risotto should be al dente, and you can season it with salt and pepper and remove it from the heat. Let it cool while you prepare the rocket.

- Wash the rocket and chop all but a couple of handfuls of it finely (the recipe says to do this in the mixer, but I don’t recommend it.), and add it to the bowl with the minced confit de canard, and the grated parmesan.

- Add the risotto and mix the stuffing together, and season. This can be done in advance and refrigerated for later use. The stuffing actually fills the necks better when it is chilled and somewhat stiff. The recipe says to chill it for 20 minutes, while 10 minutes in the freezer will do. Just before stuffing the necks, add the egg to the stuffing.

- Stuff the necks rather full with the stuffing. The question of whether to tie, sew, or otherwise fix the necks closed for cooking comes to mind, and many traditional recipes call for you to fix the pouch closed. My investigations indicate also that if you want the skin to stay taut and thin across the stuffing, you must fix it closed. However, if you simply fold the skin underneath at each end, the neck skin retracts and thickens with cooking, thus squeezing the stuffing out of the end that provides the least resistance. It makes a pretty overflowing cornucopia-like presentation this way, and the neck is juicier in the end. If you prefer to keep the skin thin and crispy, fix it closed, by either sewing it, using a skewer, toothpicks, or string to keep it closed. If you do this, the skin will be thinner. Your choice. Place the stuffed necks in a large ceramic or cast iron dish, giving each room to breathe, room for the heat to get at them from all sides and make them a nice golden brown.

- Salt the outside, and add the remaining duck fat from the confit to the pan, and bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes at 160C/350F. Baste the necks with the liberal amount of fat that is rendered by the neck skin every five minutes during this time. At the end of 30 minutes time, pour off the fat, sprinkle with grated parmesan, and turn up the heat to 200C/450F. Let it continue to brown and crispen on the outside to taste.

- Serve on hot plates with a fresh rocket salad, sprinkled with your choice of vinegar and seasoned with sea salt. There's no need to prepare a vinaigrette to go with the greens, they are just right as is with a little vinegar and salt.

gallery_15176_15_60539.jpg

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That looks fantastic!

And you're right, because it was an amuse available only when we recieved our ducks, it was a semi regular amusee offering. I varied the garnishes, it wa always served warm and some of the accompaniments might have been celery remoulade, or duo of lentil and moutard mouselines, sauce ravigote, etc.

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We would recieve our whole canards, I would remove the foie gras, then the sous would breakdown the rest. He then would give me the carcass and necks, I would scrape the carcass with a spoon to remove any bit of meat. I would then make a mixture of meat, pain de mie, lots of garlic and chopped parsley, heavy cream, and chopped fat, stuff them and them give them back to the sous to cook(along with the cleaned bones).

How was the dish described on the menu?

I woud assume that since it was served as an amuse geule, it wasn't listed on the menu, nor would it even be named when serving it... Did you name it anyway?

Timh, was it served hot or cold?

Ah, I missed the earlier reference to it being served as an amuse. I was just curious how it would have been described on the menu if it was listed there.

"Under the dusty almond trees, ... stalls were set up which sold banana liquor, rolls, blood puddings, chopped fried meat, meat pies, sausage, yucca breads, crullers, buns, corn breads, puff pastes, longanizas, tripes, coconut nougats, rum toddies, along with all sorts of trifles, gewgaws, trinkets, and knickknacks, and cockfights and lottery tickets."

-- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1962 "Big Mama's Funeral"

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Cou de canard farci a la / au ... Would be a French menu name, although elsewhere it might be called something else.

Experimenting with one duck neck that has cooled - it slices beautifully. You can get really pretty cross cut slices, quite thin if your knife is sharp, since the stuffing expands and fills the neck quite tightly. Last night, having a whole lot of rocket, and seeing that it is traditionally served in Italy wilted with pasta, I made a rocket pasta and topped the dish with warmed thin slices of this stuffed duck neck. Very good, and a good alternative way of serving it for people who are limiting their fat intake.

The recipe for this dish is in the Recipe Gullet with instructions on how to bone the neck.

I would love to see the other recipes that people have found, once you've had the time to test them.

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Wow! I'm speechless, but already looking for duck necks to give this a try.

Reminds me of my first oxtail experience in France--the menu was ambiguous about how the tail was served. I envisioned a tedious slog through lots of tiny bones, turned out to be a large oxtail ravioli, already boned!

Braised meats...mmmmmmm.

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Lucy, that photo of the sliced duck neck garnishing the soup is just gorgeous.

Makes you want to run out and ring some poor duck's neck...! Now I'm looking everywhere for duck necks, and all I'm finding is pig's ears. Is that some sort of cosmic message? :huh:

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Well, it could be a sign, Hathor. Maybe it means you should go ahead and use what is fresh and readily available to you. You won't be able to make a stuffed duck neck from a sows ear, in any case, but perhaps something just as good.

Dave, this soup is one from my kitchen notebook, using the seasonal pumkin-like squash we're seeing in slices at the market these days and a lightly smoked poitrine. It's a recipe where I puree the meat along with the vegetables. I made a similar soup in my first eG Food Blog.

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It's lovely, Lucy! But I'm wondering, was it worth it? You have stuffing wrapped in skin. Is it special because the skin is a continuous tube, or because it really has a ducky taste, or what? Tell more about the flavor and texture, s'il te plait.

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Abra, I have actually put extra duck necks on my list with the intention of preparing this again within the next week, enough to freeze and take out one by one, slice, crispen in the hot pan and put into soups or over salads, or serve with aperetif, or serve maybe half a neck per person as a first course with a btter green salad, for two reasons.

Reason 1: flavor) Have you ever had freshly rendered craquelins? Not the old stale ones you never can tell if they're going to taste good. I'm talking guaranteed absolute freshly rendered craquelins. The ones that have that great tasting salty flavor and every so often you get one that's still soft and has a kind of bite to it, just amazingly delicious. The stuffed duck neck in this recipe is soft enough to cut cleanly and evenly, and is just one big fresh soft duck craquelin cone that tastes delicious. The flavor is all about the skin. You've had chicken skin that's crisped brown? This is it, just crispy browned duck skin flavor.

Reason 2: appeal and creative element) Not only does it taste simply amazing, it makes a good presentation when sliced. It's a more complicated dish that you have to plan out, yes, but less effort than a terrine, or duck confit, because you can start with the necks and be done with the whole thing in several steps. No long marinades. If you keep stock on hand you could conceivably get this done in an hour. The recipe does not call for any resting time between the deboning of the necks and the time you stuff it.

I would prepare this dish for a fellow gourmande or someone who specifically asks for it. I definitely can see serving this in small doses to blind crowds because it really tastes good and I cannot imagine that anyone who isn't averse to poultry skin would turn it down. I would not serve this as a main dish to a group I didn't know - because you never know who might not approve of the fat content.

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