march au gras…or what to do with a fat duck: Foie Gras Crumble aux Pain d’Épices

Slipping down the icy Gascon roads to Gimont was an exercise in prudence and haste. The long drive to get to the weekly seasonal Marché au Gras this week was all the more exciting after our freak snowfall and subsequent minus freezing temps created ideal snowboarding conditions. My old Van Rouge was up for the parcours so Hilary and I hopped in and drove into a white landscape of rolling hills and farms. Beautiful.

I know it would be a small market, the after season is always small, but coupled with the stay home weather we arrived to find the normally bustling large hall skint- just a dozen fatted ducks total, 3 or 4 geese. But what ducks!

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Duck Confit- how to, 101, and my yearly encouraging words.

 

This is one of my all time favorite photographs taken over the years in my kitchen at Camont by bon vivant photographe extraordinaire- Tim Clinch.  It a celebration of the marche au gras (the fat markets) in the Southwest of France, an homage to the honest cooking of Gascony, and an encouraging reminder of the season ahead. November is Confit Season.

If you have been following along or creating the wonderful Charcutepalooza challenges posted by Mrs. Wheelbarrow here for the Grand Prix finale, then you know I hold these traditional cooking and preserving methods dear to my heart.  I am listing some of the archives on making duck confit, the traditional Gascon way- here:

• http://kitchen-at-camont.com/2009/01/30/confit-de-canard-duck-confit-part-1-how-to-buy-a-4-headed-duck/
• http://kitchen-at-camont.com/2009/02/04/confit-de-canard-duck-confit-part-2-like-meat-loves-salt/
• http://kitchen-at-camont.com/2009/02/10/confit-de-canard-duck-confit-part-3-7-french-tips/
• http://kitchen-at-camont.com/2009/01/26/fat-ducks-everything-you-need-to-know-from-confit-to-foie-gras

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A week of cooking duck in Gascony

From fat markets (no, not us the ducks, silly!) to charcuterie meccas, foie gras to smoked magret to cassoulet, this week has been a celebration of good Southwestern cooking, Camont style. This is what we made in one week of http://kitchen-at-camont.com/programs/cookery/dig-in/marche-au-gras/. Enjoy this taste of Gascony!

• Foie Gras & Lotte cassolettes- oven baked Foie gras & monkfish on a bed of julienned aillets & carrots
• Foie Gras en Chemise Verte- spinach wrapped poached foie gras
• Confit de Canard
• Rillettes de Canard
• Paté de Foie Gras
• Terrine de foie gras
• Confit de Oie- goose
• Cassoulet Camontw/ saucisse de Toulouse,
• Grattons or cracklins- Gascon popcorn Piment d’Espelette
• Magrets seché fumé
• Magret Chemineé
• Huitres Roti (for a little duck relief)

Duck Prosciutto-Charcutepalooza Challenge#1. My Duck Bacon.

I was walking down the street on my way to a Fat Market when I overheard two tourists talking. I knew they we’re tourists because one, pushing a wheelbarrow full of duck carcasses and the other with a gang of delicious children in tow, were speaking a foreign tongue. I heard unfamiliar words like prosciutto- ah, Italians! And then charcuterie- non, les françaises. And then- lalapalooza! Americaines!!! Oh my, Madame la Brouette et la NomnomMaman were not showing off speaking foreign words. They were making food. Meat food to be exact. Charcuterie, precisement! Eh Voila!

And so I followed them down this meat garden path to join a hundred other food bloggers for a charcuterie jamboree called Charcutepalooza. I call it “your year of putting your mind and money where your mouth is- on the Meat”. It was happenstance that I had just finished a two-week Artisan Butchery & Charcuterie program here at Camont with Chef Sarah Wong from Seattle’s Culinary Academy- (pictured below with a bowl o’ magrets). We had wrapped up two weeks of pig butchery and pork charcuterie with a trip to the one of the Gers fabulous Marche au Gras, or Fat Markets. the results of buying 5 fat ducks, foie gras to cracklins was a big bowl of magrets de canard or meaty duck breasts. Most of these whopping big steack de canard became confit, but I reserved two to salt, smoked and cure for…bacon. Duck Bacon.

I know the challenge says duck prosciutto, but the gascon purist that I am (meaning as it pleases me!) prefers to use the French term for a French product- hence Magret Seché- dried duck breast. And like the ventreche we salt and cure for French bacon or lardons, I knew that at least some of this deep red, melting fat meat would be destined for breakfast. And breakfast is nothing if about the Bacon.

My Duck Bacon

1. I lightly salted the meat side of the breasts, just about a tablespoon of coarse sel gris, or grey sea salt.
2. I let the salt rest on the duck overnight- 12 hours. Fat side down to cradle and retain the briny meat juices.
3. Next morning with a paper towel, I wiped off  any excess salt.
4. NOW, I heavily coated the magret with freshly ground black pepper. Fresh as in ground with my old hand cranked coffee mill.
5. Then passing a loop of string through the end of the meat, I hung the breasts, un-wrapped (the pepper will keep anything you are afraid of away!) first in a corner of my 8-foot wide fireplace for a night of smoking and then from a couple of wooden rods suspended in my airy stone pantry room. In the winter there is no risk of flies or other bugs and the fluctuating temps from day to night help cure the meat slowly.
6. A week later, maybe 10 days as we were cooking so much other food, I checked the magrets sechés. They were nicely firm, the fat was supple and the fine coat of pepper had cured into a pungent crust.
7. I sliced one immediately lengthwise, fried a couple deep golden eggs fresh from the hens, and shared a Gascon breakfast with my sister and friends.

The duck bacon’s fat melted as sweetly as pork; the meat sliced neither thick nor thin, became crispy and sweet and salty; the pepper raised the flavor level to serious enough for a Musketeer. The fat was already melting at room temperature as I took these picture. I could see it glisten and liquidfy before my eyes. The eggs were fired sunny side up, then slices of a baguette we’re toasted in the same pan to mop up any lost fat. The half fat, half lean Duck Bacon is now my favorite choice for Gascon Sunday Brunch when friends come to visit… here at Camont.

Charcutepalooza Love or Like Meat Loves Salt- a primer.

Whispers of salty advice are twittering down the internet lines. Hints of red gold are wrapped in cheesecloth and hanging from basement stairs, under eaves and nestled among the Chablis. Nervous declarations of love, success, or failure ring through the comment boxes.

Here in Gascony, friends and neighbors make charcuterie like they plan their daily meals- seriously and with great centuries of experience. So I decided to answer @Mrs.Wheelbarrow and @theyummymummy ‘s challenge to play together and help make “A Year of Meat’ with a dozen charcuterie challenges named Charcutepalooza.  Their Ruhls are here.

Since the first challenge was already underway and I had a pair of Magrets (duck breasts from a Mullard foie gras duck) hanging in my stone larder from our last AB&C Meat School program, I thought I’d take up the old world perspective and pass on some tips from the pros, my neighbors who raise foie gras ducks and how they salt and cure their own product.

These are the Gascon ABC’s for making Magret Séché straight from the duck’s beak!

A. MEAT. Duck. Use a duck breast that comes from a mature foie gras duck- that is a large breed duck (Muscovy or Mullard hybrid) of 16 weeks age average that has been raised for it’s fatted liver. The breast meat is dark red with a thick layer of fat. The meat is rich and fully developed as any meat use for curing would be. Think beef not veal. There needs to be structure to the meat cells for it to cure properly.

B. SALT. Appropriately. One tablespoon of good sea salt well-rubbed into the meat side of the duck breast is enough. Placed skin side down, the fat acts a cradle to retain any meat juices that then get reabsorbed. After 12 hours- yup, just over night, wipe off any excess salt. There should be almost nothing left.

C. DRY. Age.  In other words, let time make magic. At Camont, I have a stone larder sandwiched between the kitchen and the barn. It once served as the piggery for the farm and is now the laundry room/pantry. We still call it the Piggery. It’s airy, cool and humid and fluctuates temperature just like the étuve on the Chapolard’s farm- warm days, cool nights. Just like the rest of Camont. It’s perfect to let meat hang free in the air, no cheesecloth needed, and out of the cat’s reach. I have never seen anyone here wrap their saucisse or hams in anything but black pepper. 10 days to 2 weeks is enough.

These are the basics of dried duck breasts… as we do them in Gascony, the kingdom of foie gras ducks. Stayed tuned for my own Duck Breast Bacon sandwich- a DLT, coming soon for the Charcutepalooza challenge. and don’t forget to follow along on Twitter with the #charcutepalooza hashtag.