Duck Confit for Cassoulet

Along with four breasts of duck prosciutto my two ducks also provided me with four legs for confit (using another great recipe from Charcuterie). The legs got a quick dusting with 1 oz of kosher salt along with pieces of garlic, bay leaves, black pepper, and cloves. After two days of curing in the refrigerator they had given up a bit of moisture, but didn't look too different.


The next step was to render out some duck fat from all of the fat and skin that I had harvested from the ducks. To do this I added a cup of water and brought the mixture to a bare simmer. After 2 hours I strained out the what remained of the skin and chilled the fat.


I then cooked the duck legs submerged in the fat (along with a bit of lard) in the oven at 200 degrees for 6 hours. This low slow cooking makes for some incredibly moist and flavorful meat.

After letting the legs stay under the fat for 4 days in the refrigerator I was ready to make Cassoulet. Cassoulet is one of the big French culinary classics, up there with Beef Bourguignon, Coq Au Vin, and Bouillabaisse. I decided to go with a recipe from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook.

The first step was to simmer 5 cups of white beans (which I had already soaked overnight), 2 lbs of pork (I used shoulder, but belly is preferred), a piece of pork rind/skin (I used a piece left over from making bacon), a quartered onion, thyme, peppercorns, salt, and enough water to cover. After 1 hour the beans and pork (meat and rind) were mostly cooked, I discarded everything else (reserving the cooking liquid).

To further add some Maillard reaction flavors I browned 6 sausages (I used German pork sausages) in a bit of the duck fat.


I then browned 3 sliced onions and a clove of garlic in the same pan. Once they were cooked I pureed them with the cooked piece of pork rind.


Once I had the duck, sausages, puree, beans, reserved cooking liquid, and a large pot it was time to build the cassoulet. I used my 5 qrt cast iron dutch over, but it was just barely large enough. I layered it (bottom to top) beans, duck, puree, beans, sausages, puree, beans, pork, puree, beans. I then added the reserved liquid from the beans to cover. Cooked with the lid on for 1 hour at 350 followed by another hour at 250.

After the cassoulet cooled, I put it into the refrigerator overnight. When ready to eat you could just reheat at 350 for one hour with the lid off to crisp the top. However, I didn't have 8 friends to join me for dinner so I just portioned out the cassoulet and reheated it depending on how much I needed. Here I was cooking for my roommate and a friend.


The tender meat and creamy beans were terrific. The flavor is mostly a reflection of the quality of the ingredients and your technique, not over spiced, not too heavy. The one let down was the sausages, which were a bit too dry. My friend Zach (a chef) suggested I try Andouille next time, so that's what I would suggest going with.

If you are looking for something to drink with your cassoulet I would suggest a beer with some maltiness to complement the meat, but still enough dryness to clean the pallet. I though dubbels fit the bill nicely, particularly a bottle of Westmalle Dubbel I had with it one night.

Duck Breast Prosciutto

Here is the process (adapted from Charcuterie by Polcyn and Ruhlman) that I went through to make a simple and tasty cured meat, duck breasts that taste amazingly like an aged ham. The great think about using duck breast instead of a hog's leg is that the higher surface to mass ratio means that the cure and aging take about a week instead of months. The size is also much more manageable, and duck breasts are much easier to find.

I bought two whole ducks (regular Long Island, but something more interesting would work just as well), and took off the breasts and legs. I reserved the four legs for confit (along with all the fat and skin not attached to the breasts).


The four breasts were rinsed, patted dry, and then packed in kosher salt. I put down 1/3 of the salt in the bottom of a Pyrex baking dish, laid the breasts on skin side up not touching, then covered them with the remaining salt. In all it took almost an entire 5 lb box of salt.


After 24 hours in the refrigerator I took the breasts out of the salt. They were noticeably firmer, and a darker shade of red. The salt was the consistency of wet beach sand from the moisture it had drawn out of the meat. I rinsed the breasts in cool water to remove the excess salt and then patted them dry. I gave them a light dusting with white pepper. Other spices could be used either in the cure or afterwards, but I wanted to see how the flavor of just the duck would be on my first try.

I wrapped each breast in a layer of cheesecloth, secured with some string (pink string optional). I then hung the duck breasts in my chest freezer and set it for 50 degrees. A cool basement in winter would probably work as well.

After 7 days hanging in the cool, moist spot then were firm, but not leathery or hard. They smelled meaty, but still very clean/fresh.

Sliced thin on the bias the meat tastes like a slightly gamier version of dry cured ham (Prosciutto, or Serrano). The texture is a bit chewier than cured ham, but that may just be because I am not getting it sliced as thin as a meat slicer would. The flavor is meaty and salty on its own, but also compliments cheese, bread, or fruit (apples or melon) very nicely. It also complimented the flavor of the Dock Street Illuminator Doppelbock that I am drinking while writing this.


When Scott and I were smoking the bacon we also put one of these breasts on for the first hour at 200 degrees. The result was a salty, slightly chewy piece of meat that very closely resembled a Smithfield Ham in appearance and flavor. The dry cure was probably a bit too heavy handed for this application, but a brine would have been perfect.

Beer Brewers for Obama

Speaking of obscure political buttons, my friend Noah gave this one to me the other day.


Who wants an Anheuser Busch distributor heiress as first lady anyway?

Where are you from?

Here are the results of where visitors to this site are from, always happy to see people from all over the world chiming in.

Northeast 16 (11%)
Mid-Atlantic 15 (10%)
Mid-West 30 (21%)
South 18 (12%)
Mountains 4 (2%)
West Coast 25 (17%)
Canada 7 (4%)
Other No. America 2 (1%)
South America 2 (1%)
Oceania (Is it still called that?) 3 (2%)
Asia 0 (0%)
Europe 16 (11%)
Other 4 (2%) (Feel free to chime in where you are from)

I use Google Analytics as well, and so I thought it would be interesting to compare where computers are connecting from against what people responded.

84% North America
10% Europe
4% Australia/New Zealand
1% South America
1% Asia

Seems pretty similar to me, although I wonder if those hits from Asia are people or bots.

Sour Beer Update X 6

The Flanders Red (right) is down to 1.009 from an OG of 1.068. It is starting to develop some nice sourness and a cranberry fruitiness, and the buttery flavor that I got last time I took a sample is gone. This is shaping up to be a good one if it doesn't dry out too much.

Big Funky (left) is at 1.020 (pushing 12.5% ABV) from an OG of 1.120. I was excited to see that it has dried out from where it was going into secondary (1.040). The flavor is pretty smooth and it is developing some nice dark fruit character, but still no sourness. It still needs considerably more time, but it seems to be headed in the right direction.

My mother also sent me some photos of the beers aging in their closet.

Looks like the Cable Car Clone (right) is developing a nice pellicle after adding the DME pick me up. I'm hoping it is ready to bottle by the end of December, but it may need another few months.
I can't really see into the Lambic (front center) through the krasuen strained plastic.

The Blueberry Lambic seems to be getting a really vibrant color, can't wait to get that one bottled in a couple months.

The pluots in the Flanders Pale looks to be swollen and starting to get some bacterial/yeast growth on them. Certainly looks like it will take awhile for them to fully break down.

Aging Wine with Ultrasonic Waves

Here is an interesting story from The Telegraph about a machine that vibrates bottles of wine (or any alcoholic beverage) for 30 minutes supposedly making them taste as if they have been aged for years or decades.

What is the "science" behind this amazing invention you ask, "Inventor Casey Jones says the £350 gadget uses ultrasound technology to recreate the effects of decades of ageing by colliding alcohol molecules inside the bottle." It goes onto discuss the effects, "The look and bouquet of the drink is improved and because of the chemical changes, the alcohol is easier to absorb by the kidneys and therefore, hangovers are virtually eliminated."

First off since when does the kidney absorb alcohol? The liver absorbs and processes alcohol in the blood stream. Generally this sort of off-kilter claim is a red flag that something is going on.

Their explanation just doesn't hold water, what in the world would alcohol molecules bumping into each other accomplish? Ethanol is ethanol, you aren't going to change that with 30 minutes of vibration. They might be talking about higher (fusel) alcohols, as far as I am aware they can mellow slightly through oxidation and esterification, but if you ferment something too warm or fail to cut off the heads and tails of a distilled spirit correctly these headache inducing compounds will always be present.

The article states that it would work on whiskey as well, but as the old joke goes: What do you get when you age a bottle of 20 year old of whiskey for 10 years? A dusty bottle of 20 year old whiskey. It is the oak and the oxygen that enhance the flavors of something aged in a barrel, not just time.

Even if it could make a bottle of wine taste 10 years older, most cheap wine doesn't turn into a great wine with a couple years of age. Great aged wine (or beer) is very good when fresh, but improves with age. No amount of age will fix a poorly made alcoholic beverage.

It disappoints me that this sort of junk can make its way into a reputable newspaper. When did a paper doing a story on a product become free advertising with no critical thinking or research into it?