Duck. Duck. Goose.

When people ask me about typical Gascon cuisine, I turn web-footed and start quacking.

In Gascony, Duck is the national bird.

In most Gascon homes, Duck Fat is the cooking fat of choice as well as flavor enhancer.

With duck on the brain, I slip some thinly sliced leftover magret (breasts) onto a steamy hot corn tortilla with a slug of my potager chili sauce.

There is a pot of duck rillettes in the fridge  ready to spread on toasted pain de campagne that has been rubbed with garlic.

A slab of magret séché or Duck Ham, a smoked and dried duck breast, rubbed liberally with black pepper, twirls off a string in the fireplace at Camont. Sliced thinly and served with pears, melons or prunes it makes  a sweet/salty appetizer

Jars of Confit de Canard sits in the pantry, each with 2 fatted duck legs poached in a sea of liquid gold.

A little Spanish pot perches on the kitchen counter filled with pure white duck fat for cooking omelets, potatoes, etc.

Cans with hand-lettered brown labels announce- cou farci, petits coeur aux foie gras, manchons et gesiers. (stuffed necks, hearts filled with foie gras, confited wings & gizzards)

Crispy duck cracklin’s sprinkled with sea salt, black pepper and quatre-épices warmed in  oven are served like Gascon Popcorn.

A steamy marmite of broth simmers on the fireplace flavored with a duck carcass, carrots, leeks, shallots, thyme and bay- Bouillon de Canard.

Oh, not last and not least, a terrine of Foie Gras from Jehanne’s  Ferme de Boué waits to be opened for Christmas eve with my family in the U.S.