Dry-Cured Duck Salami

Like I have said so many times before I am addicted to Duck. Even more so when it's cured. I have several posts on various cured duck creations and it's not going to stop anytime soon. I might have to create a page just for my duck recipes. This is my new creation. Dry cured Duck with Apricots. This recipe was inspired from something I saw/read on UMAI drybag website. UMAI made a Salame out of Ducks and Pork fat using Figs and Gentleman's Jack. Of course I don't eat pork so I used 100% Duck. I want to emphasise my ultimate goal which is to take what is traditional treif Charcuterie and produce Kosher alternatives using of course Kosher meat.  

The adorable picture in the upper left corner of your screen is none other than the Pekin Duck. The Pekin Duck are wonderful for this application. A Muscovy Duck Breast has about 18% fat, the Pekin duck breast has about 29% and the Moulard is a cross between the Muscovy and the Pekin. For the Salami I needed lots of fat so Pekin was the right choice for this recipe.

By the way if the picture of the duck above bothers you too bad. I've been criticized in the past for posting pictures of what we eat but that's a personal choice I make. Most people don't know what their food looks like or where it comes from. So with my blogs I am hoping to share a little bit of insight and hopefully know how. I am not on a crusade or anything but I think we should respect the process.

I purchased my fresh duck breasts online. I have had great luck with D'Artagnan which is an online company that sells a variety of meat. They have great customer service with 100% guarantee. These ducks are perfect and are large! I actually have 12 breast for this recipe which is just an ounce above 7 lbs or exactly 3177 grams. This is a straightforward recipe that should tantalize your culinary taste buds. As you can tell from the ingredients list they are unique or at least I think so.

Link for Dry Cure Notes

One of the things that you will find interesting about this recipe is the unique ingredients I used. I used Grains of Paradise instead of Black Pepper which I use almost exclusively for my pastrami. I love Garam Masala which is a blend of spices which include cloves and cinnamon and other goodies. It's common in North Indian and South Asian cuisines. And last but not least I used Demerara sugar which is a unique brown sugar. Using an electric spice mill I combine the Juniper berries, White pepper, grains of paradise and Demerara sugar and ground them up. The Demerara sugar has the texture of kosher salt and I wanted the grains to be smaller.

The following steps are straightforward....well at least I believe so. Before you think about grinding everything up you need to think about temp and size of the meat. First thing I did was to cut the meat into two inch pieces. My grinder is a big bite Lem #32 and can handle just about anything. I kept the meat temperature below the danger zone (below 40) but much closer to freezing to prevent smearing when grinding. Duck fat melts almost at room temp. Grinding at near frozen temps makes for an easy grind. I used a 3/8 diameter plate for this sausage. Fermentation goes faster with a larger grind. With my monster grinder it took me all of 45 seconds to grind 7 lbs of duck. Do I need such a big grinder? No but is bigger is always better. Having a monster size grinder I am able to process meat quickly which means less time at room temp. I have used many grinders over the years and once you go big you don't go back. 



Looking at the video does not give this grinder justice. I couldn't shove it in fast enough. It just ate everything I tossed in it. 

I soaked the chopped up apricots in Apricot brandy for about an hour. I then tossed them in the grinder with the brandy. So tasty!!!! 

I pre-measured all the ingredients including Prague powder #2 using Milligram scales or this Milligram scale. These scales are not expensive either so pick one up. I tossed the larger spices and sugar into a spice grinder to get them uniformed in size. 

I tossed all the spices into the meat mixture and using very thick gloves I combined the ground up duck by hand. I made sure the meat temp was below 40 degrees (more like 35 degrees). I wanted to keep it out of the danger zone. Even though I was using gloves the cold meat hurt my hands.  







I have a meat mixer attachment that could have done the mixing but anything less than 10 lbs is relatively easy to do. After everything was mixed I added the culture and mixed thoroughly. 





I used my Sausage Maker Stuffer  as my stuffing apparatus. It's a great inexpensive little stuffer that gets the job done. I have had mine for about 16 yrs. It can hold 15 lbs of meat.

Now on to the bags. Since I do not have a traditional curing chamber I am once again using a UMAI dry bag for my Charcuterie. 

This is what they look like after 3 days of fermenting. What's funny about my this particular batch was the conditions. 

I have my Air conditioner on just blasting the house with cold air (55 F) which is not great for fermenting. I had to place the duck in my bonus room with a heater and a bowl of water to keep humidity high. Obviously it worked out. 

I rotate them every day. Each Salami is marked 1-5 so I can assess weight loss. The Salami's need to lose 30%-40%. 
Project start date July 22, 2014. 
I am not sure what % of weight I want the Duck to lose. As the Duck approaches these numbers I will evaluate them.

Update-Sept 10- Here is an updated picture of the Salami.Looks pretty good. I weigh the duck at least once a day now. We are at about 36% loss.

Sep 23, 2014....The Duck is finally done. The Duck came out great!! The texture was slightly softer but I was expecting this because I was using 100% duck fat. Duck fat melts at room temp so this must be refrigerated at all times. The flavors were great and nothing stood out but that is what I was going for. I did however expect more apricot flavor to come through but I did not notice it at all. Overall a great Salami!!!!

Gratuitous photos below.....

TOP OF PAGE

The Rebbe's Ham

The Rebbe’s Ham

The title is not a mistake but an oxymoron to capture a point. My Ham is metaphorical in nature in that I am not describing the anatomy of an animal but using the word colloquially. The word ham is used here to describe preserved meat that replicates the texture, taste and appearance of Swine Ham. With that, I think a Rebbe would be happy to eat my Duck Ham.

I happen to love Duck and decided after I made Duck Prosciutto   and other duck concoctions that a Ham would be great. So what to do? I know that flavor is important and I wanted to mimic the flavors of real Ham. I decided to go with some traditional flavors that I believe would work well with duck. I have seen plenty of Ham recipes that claim to taste like honey or maple so I decided to use flavors that I think could replicate the flavors of real Ham. 

I purchased my fresh Magret duck breast online. I have had great luck with D'Artagnan which is an online company that sells a variety of meat. They have great customer service with 100% guarantee. These ducks are perfect and are large!!!


This is a  straightforward recipe that should rock your culinary taste buds. As you can tell from the ingredients list they are unique or at least I think so. I am using Demerara Sugar which is unrefined, golden brown and with hints of natural molasses flavor.  Herbs de Provence is a common ingredient in most French cuisines.  

             

Of course no recipe of this magnitude would be complete without alcohol.  I used Crown Royal Maple whiskey and gave the duck breast a 24 hours soak.

My instructions are hopefully easy to understand. First measure out all ingredients and place in separate bowls. Using a spice grinder grind up the pepper and cloves. Place duck in container large enough to hold them. Combine salt and cure together and thoroughly rub into meat getting it into every nook and cranny. 

Now combine ground up mixture with remaining ingredients and rub into duck breast. 
Again getting the rub into all the nooks and cranny's. Vacuum seal breasts and all residual spice mixture.   

I am using the equilibrium salt cure technique instead of the excess salt cure version. Using this technique avoids over salting. Equilibrium curing is the Sous-Vide of curing a coined phase by Jason Molinari. With a 12 day cure I am confident the cure will reach the center of the Duck Breast. 

After the curing process of about 12 days I am going to use Transglutaminase Activa RM to bind the meat together. I want the Duck to look more like a cylinder and to hold its shape when rolled. the Activa when applied to the Duck will allow it to become one solid muscle. 
Transglutaminase, also called meat glue, is an enzyme that can be used to bind proteins to make uniform portions of fish filet, tenderloins, etc. that cook evenly, look good and reduce waste. Transglutaminase can also be used for creative applications in modernist cuisine such as making shrimp noodles, binding chicken skin to scallops or even making checkerboards with different types of fish.  How can you do such a thing? Simply apply some transglutaminase on each side of the protein to bind, press the sides together and let it rest refrigerated for a few hours. 

After a 10 day cure the duck breast is ready.

The Duck breast was coated with Activa RM to bond the proteins together. It will need 24 hours the process to take place.

The Activa worked. One solid muscle.

Looks great!!! The picture to right shows where the seam is and I must say I am happy with the bonding action of the Activa RM.

Not sure you can tell from the picture but I slathered maple syrup on the duck.

I will cold smoke them for 2-3 hours than hot smoke until 145 degrees is reached internally.

Gratuitous pictures showing my work of art. The extra pictures are of my Duckstrami and Rebbes Ham.

Cooked to an internal temp of 145 degrees

Final thoughts- Just Amazing! Nothing else really to add. The Maple flavors were subtle and sublime.  The Activa Rm really made the Duck hold its shape without twine and in my book is a must for now on. 

Now for the gratuitous photographs.