Duck Day Afternoon (Part I)

After an incredibly busy week, I'm back with the much anticipated duckfest post.

Here is the dissection process. It's pretty much the same as any poultry, but the by-products are a bit more interesting. The difference is with the duck, you should use every savory bit. Don't throw anything away!! I'll tell you what I do with it later.

The first step to a successful quartering is to use the right tools. The best knife for the job is a stiff boning knife. I know it should go without saying, but the knife must be SHARP. Go out and buy some decent knives, and either invest in a oil stone or take them in to have a new edge put on them every once in a while (how often depends on how much you use them, of course).

If you buy a commercially packaged duck (like mine) it will come with the neck and a package of innards inside the body cavity. Pull these out and set them aside (we will use later them in our soup). Arrange your duck on a cutting board breasts up, with the legs pointing down toward you. Cut away as much of the fat as you can from around the cavity opening and from around the neck hole. Keep this fat for later.

Begin the carving process by spreading the legs away from the body and locating the edge of the thigh meat. There will be a thick layer of fat between the thigh and the body. Make an incision through this layer of fat so that the legs droop away from the body. DO NOT CUT ALL THE WAY THROUGH YET! We are doing this now because having the legs drooping away from the body helps to stabilize the carcass while you carve away the breasts.

Now move on to the breasts. Locate the breast bone and make an incision in the fat right down the center of it. Do not cut into the meat yet. After you make the incision, you will be able to slide the fat away from the middle of the body to see where each breast attaches to the breast bone. Carefully make a deep incision along the breast bone to cut the meat away.

At the top of the breast, you will see where the wishbone attaches to the breast. Slide the knife blade under the bone, and separate the breast at the top. This can be a little tricky, but if you move the meat around to see how it is attached to the wishbone before you cut, it will be easier to see how it has to be cut to remove it.

One the breast is free at the breastbone and at the wishbone, use one hand to hold the breast meat away from the bone, and from the center breastbone, gently slide the knife under the breast horizontally. Then, slice the breast away from the ribs as you pull the breast meat away from the bird. You should end up with the whole breast in your hand. Now repeat on the other side. This may be tricky since most of us are not ambidextrous, but get yourself a pile of ducks and practice. You'll get the hang of it.

On to the legs.

If you hold the leg quarter away from the body of the duck, you will see the pointy hip-bone down near the original cavity opening. As you pull the leg down toward the cutting board, slice down the spine behind this pointy bone. As you do this, you should be able to lay the quarter all the way down on the board. Also, as you cut, you will see the hip joint appear behind the pointy bone. Repeat this process on both sides so that you end up with a duck body with the two quarters laying flat on either side attached at the hip.

Now, pick up the carcass by the legs and bend the hip joints backwards until you pop both thigh bones out of the hip socket. Put the duck back on the board. Take your knife and slide the tip between the hip socket and thigh bone. It may take a little pressure, but you should be able to push the knife all the way to the board. Now, carefully cut along the hip bone to separate the bottom of the quarter from the body. You should now have a flap of flesh holding the leg to the body. Cut this flap as closely to the spine as possible. Repeat on the other side, and you have a pair of leg quarters.

Pull the wings away from the body and cut through the shoulder joints to remove the wings.

Voila! You have a pair of breasts, a pair of leg quarters, a pair of wings, some innards, and a pile of fat.

Pack up the carcass, wings, and innards for soup.

Wrap the breasts together in a piece of foil, put them in a freezer bag; do the same with the legs; pop them both in the freezer, and you have dinner portions for during the week. (We'll deal with them later).

Put the fat in a sauce pot with a thick bottom over low heat. After the fat begins to melt, you can turn the heat up a little, but still keep it pretty low. The idea is to keep the fat around 300 F, so that it melts but does not reach the flash point (The flash point for duck fat is around 500 F).

After 40 mins or so, the duck skin will begin to look like pork rinds. Once the rinds stop sizzling, strain the hot fat through some cheesecloth or a fine sieve. Let it cool and put it in the freezer or refrigerator. It should last about a month in the refrigerator, and I have kept it for up to a year in the freezer. We will use it to make confit later.

I even like the crispy duck rinds after you strain them out of the fat. Okay, this is a little overboard. My wife thinks it is gross, but they are really tasty! Crispy fatty duck goodness! Yum!

You now have the tools for several tasty meals, duck soup, confit, and breasts, each of which will be explained in subsequent parts of this series. You're on the edge of your seat, I can tell.